Hasimotos in 15 yr old daughter

[Mer43]

My 15 yr old daughter has Hasimotos. She is nauseated everyday and has headaches 4-6 times a week. She takes 75mcg synthroid daily. Use to take Levoxyl switched to see if helped with nausea. It did not. What do I do to help her? I need advice on nutrition and supplements.I'm thinking this is her part of her problem. How much of a factor does that play?  I'm overwhelmed with the data I've read. I'm reading The Thyroid Diet book by Mary Sholom, MD now. She suffers, can anyone give me any advice on what I can do to help her? She can't go on like this. Her TSH is normal right now. She has joint pain, dizziness, low energy, can't go to sleep at night, shakiness at times, feels sad for no reason. She was diagnosed at 12. If anyone can help me I would appreciate it!!! Thanks

[Juliathyroidmama]

Hi mer 43
I had a thyroid issue since I was little. Until i was 21, I could eat and never gain weight. Then I got very tired and exhausted and sad for no reason.
Stopped getting my period. I have hashimotos thyroiditis. One of the best things you can do for your daughter is get her selenium, b vitamins
Gluten free diet, maybe dairy free and vegetarian. I know this sounds harsh but the are a lot of options now. I feel like a different person who is not nauseas and headache all the time. I am not bloated and have more energy. Sometimes I still feel sick but much less of the time.
Let me know if you want any other info. Also look at shalom book on food bad for thyroid and hashimotos.
Julia

[DLA]

Sucking on peppermints works even better than the tea for me.  You can also just disolve a little peppermint in water and drink it if you don't like tea, that is the only way my son got any relieve when he was colicy(SP?).  The other thought to help the nausea are wrist bands called seabands.  You generally have to ask for them at the pharmacy b/c they keep them behind the counter.  Couldn't have made it through pregnancy without them.

My son and husband also suffer from anemia and it causes all the things you have described.  If you look at their gums (high up) and the inside of the bottom eyelid they appear really pale.  Was told the mucus membrane in the nose does, too, but was not up for looking in there. :-P

Would also have the dr check out her hormone levels when they do the blood workup.  Make sure when you have all these blood tests run that they give you the lab results with their normal ranges.  IN WRITING!  Sometimes the ranges that labs still use are very old and out dated.  If you have it all in writing you can do your own research on them.

Hope you find really quick results for her.  It is so horrible when it's your baby!

God bless you both,

Dac

[Mer43]

Thanks for your comments. I will definatly ask about the pain in the hip and neck. Did not think about it pressing on a nerve. Also what is RAI? And the antibody test, would  these be the same ones they did 3 years ago for the thyroid? Or are there others I should consider? We do have a family history of migraine and cluster headaches on both sides. I suffer from headaches as well. Poor kid, gets it from both sides. What about anemia and headaches. I though I would have her tested for iron too.Thanks

[rayneweather]

Give the family history of thyroid issues, arthritis and diabetes I would be willing to bet that a bunch of it is auto-immune related.  My suggestion is to ask the doctor to do antibody studies and see how they are doing.  For the pain in the neck and lower back perhaps her thyroid is pressing on a nerve??  I wonder if the doctor would think a visit to a rheumatologist would be appropriate to make sure nothing else auto-immune is going on as it isn't uncommon for people who have auto-immune thyroid problems (like Hashi's) to have other auto-immune disorders.  Has your doctor suggested looking @ RAI for a permenant treatment?  And I do agree that some of your daughter's symptoms sound hyper in nature (joint aches, insomnia, jitteriness).  It is possible to be both hypo & hyper - you swing from one to the other.  A suggestion for the nausea - what about peppermint tea?  I know it is supposed to help with upset stomachs.  And there is an OTC anti-nausea medicine called Emetrol - I have used it in the past when my morning sickness get really bad.  It actually is a children's medicine, tastes pretty good and worked pretty decently.  If that doesn't work perhaps your doctor will order some low dose phenergan oral tablets or suppositories (people with migraines often use them).  Oh, another thought - does anyone in your family (especially the women) suffer with migraines?  I know in my family the women do and they started for us in our mid teens when puberty was setting in because they have a strong hormonal component.  And they only go away after menopause.  Perhaps the nausea is related to the headaches and they are migraines?  Just thinking off the top of my head here.  I hope you find a way to make her feel better soon.

Rayne

[rayneweather]

Sorry about not explaining RAI.  It stands for RadioActive Iodine.  It is radiation in a pill and it's taken orally and kills only thyroid cells.  Normally it's not the first line of defense unless it's definitely cancer and even then they normally do a thyroidectomy first.  From the stories I've heard and the information I've seen it is used for people whose thyroids are difficult to control because they don't give out fairly constant amount of hormone - they'll surge and then sputter out and then surge and then sputter out - making it very difficult to keep symptoms and lab values where they should be with medicine.  It would mean being on synthroid or levoxyl for the rest of her life but it may be easier to get her on a regulated dose of medicine that will keep her body healthy and help her feel good.  I don't know about anemia and headaches but research has shown that most people who have migraines have mixed type (meaning more than 1 cause) and in a majority of women who have them hormones play a big part (especially estrogen).  

Not to be nosy but is your daughter developing & hitting puberty?  I only ask because I just found out from my aunt that hypothyroidism can cause problems with puberty & reproductive organs.  She wasn't diagnosed until age 19 (and apparently had a pretty bad case) and by it was too late; her reproductive organs never developed normally and she was infertile.  I don't say this to scare you but to make you aware (because I sure wasn't) that thyroid can have an affect on puberty & maturation.

And the antibodies are most likely the same ones they tested 3 years ago in order to diagnose the Hashi's.  I don't know if doing them again would necessarily help anything but I think it is always good to get the "big picture" and see where all my labs are.  But the endo may think otherwise :-)

Have a good weekend!!

[debbie0413]

I had another thought.  Perhaps some of your daughter's symptoms are part of another illness.  Is Hashimoto's related to an autoimmune condition in a similar way to Graves' Disease?  Anyway, when a person has one of these autoimmune conditions, they can become affected by other autoimmune conditions, such as arthritis or lupus.  If you are able to get your daughter in for a full blood workup, perhaps you could ask about this possibility.

[debbie0413]

I'm not that familiar with Hashimoto's, but my 17 y.o. daughter has been diagnosed with Graves' Disease since February.  Is your daughter hyper as well as hypo, or only just hypo?  It sounds like it has been really hard on your whole family.

The people in this forum seem very knowledgable with the medical stuff.  I'm starting to learn the basics of Graves and the treatment options, but I get lost with all of the different T3 and T4 stuff.  The folks on this forum can help you ask astute questions of your daughter's docs and how to persevere until you get your questions RE: diagnosis and treatment answered.

Also, if you are interested, I'm trying to round up a few parents of kids and teens with thyroid problems to see if we can form a formal or informal sub-forum for support.  I've checked locally and with different online discussion groups, and no one seems to know of a place where teens with thyroid disease can chat with other teens for their own support.  Anyway, my name is Debbie.  I'm not sure how to share my e-mail address with you, but maybe someone here might have an idea how to do that.  Maybe we can agree at a certain time to go to a place that has live chat so we can share that way.  Hope you find some substantial answers for your daughter.

- Debbie

[pjgovitz]

Hi,
I'm wondering too with the insomnia and shakiness if she isn't haven't transient hyper symptoms.. I am one who tested positive for Graves and Hashimoto's at the same time, my symptoms of hyper/hypo started at 18, and wasn't tested for co-existing Graves until 42.  From what I've learned you can also swing from hypo to hyper with just having Hashimoto's...Be insistent with her doctor,,to run further tests until she gets treatment and feels well. Also the thyroid information specialist at the American thyroid Society (1800-832-8321)..will speak to you for free and has been a God-send to me..she told me it can take several months to a year after Hormone replacement begins to feel really good again, my Internist agreed, my endo barely speaks lol..but seems to know what he's doing. Hope all goes well with your daughter.
God Bless

[Mer43]

Thank you for your imput. She does have an appt for a physical and I am insisting on a full blood workup. She has been to UCSF because she had a goiter and nodules.Benign. We went there for 2 years and I felt they did not help, and I could never talk to anyone if I needed to. She also saw a new doctor everytime unless I insisted on a specific one. Then he wouldn't be there when we drove there. We now see our general who discovered her thyroid issue in the begining. Her pediatrician told her she was fat when she was 9yrs old and had to go on 9yr old weight watchers. My general took one look at her and saw her neck was big. Her thyroid was 4xs it's size before treatment.There is a family history of thyroid. 7 members so far with this, including thyroid cancer. Also, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes. What tests should i insist on? My general is awesome with working with us. I'm just not sure what to ask for. Also, what about DHEA supplements. Anyone know about that? Thoughts on diet as well. She also has had a pain in the left side of her neck and pain in her lower back, to the point of freezing up. The pain at different times. Just coincedence? Thank you for responding!! I did try to get on with the doctor, but would not let me, I will keep trying.

[artsyrose]

sounds like she needs a full blood work up to me...I would sit in the docs face until he listened to me...if it was my daughter...been there done that

[borninquisitive]

I'll ask what I think others may ask: when where her last labs and what were the values, along with lab ranges?

I have good things about Selenium: