Low thyroid in 6 year old

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Hi just wondered if anyone else out there has experienced this with their child. My little one is awaiting a re-test to check the levels but the last bloods came back with low thyroid. I myself have hyperthyroidism and when I was portly with it I felt awful and started having other problems as it went undetected for a while so I know partly how he must be feeling.

At the last conversation with the doc he said there is no treatment for children with thyroid issues-I questioned this as surely the same as an adult, if left untreated he will start to get other issues, we've picked up on his growth and his mood swings and other minor issues, his growth is at the 30th percentile for his age and he does have bouts of very low mood swings again from what I've read can be linked to the thyroid problem. Surely they have treatment for children? Any advice or experiences greatly appreciated 🫶🏻

My son is hypothyroid because of pituitary problems (quite serious, won't freak you out). Consequently he's been on levothyroxine since the age of 5, as well as growth hormone and other hormones. So 'no treatment for children with thyroid issues' is a sweeping statement and wrong.
I would be very interested to understand why he has low thyroid.

Also if you're concerned about growth - that should be checked separately (growth hormone). I would make an appointment with an endocrinologist. Is private an option?

Thank you so much for your reply. To be honest I'm seriously considering going private I'm getting to the point I'm going to explode with our current doctors, I've been waiting for a call back or msg at least since Monday it's now Thursday, todays msg was put down as urgent and still no call back, so I'm willing to scrape together my Pennie's and go private. It's just not acceptable especially when it's a child.

Ok that's great to hear that actually it is treatable, when he said it's not treatable
I thought you must have this wrong surely you have to treat it to stop other issues happening. You have a good point that growth could be something separate. We have started measuring him now to keep a check on it ourselves, he is complaining quite a lot (has done for months now) of aching legs sometimes you can see it's very uncomfortable for him, I really hope it's just growing pains but seems sometimes to be giving him a lot of jip. Also he's come out school saying he's the shortest and the slowest runner in his class so he's noticing things himself which isn't helping his confidence.

I'm really sorry to hear your son has it I hope he's doing ok and it's being managed ok for him 💛 thank you again for your reply

The youngest patients I've started on thyroxine were under 2 weeks old. Though I have certainly seen children have blips on their thyroid function which self corrected nicely. So if the numbers weren't far out of range, a repeat after a few months is eminently sensible. But where there actually is a problem, of course there's treatment. Most of the time readily managed by a general paediatrician, in complex cases (like BlackSwan's son, who I suspect from the post has panhypopituitaryism) can be referred onto a paediatric endocrinologist.

I would go private just to move things forward more quickly than you will be able to in the NHS.

My son is thankfully doing really well & the NHS has been incredible for us, he was shifted to NHS once diagnosed but initial appointments with specialists can be too slow. Good luck, you just have to be his advocate & push until you’re satisfied with the answers you’re given.

True thyroid deficiency in children is treated, at any age. There is more of a grey area around "subclinical hypothyroidism" where the tests are borderline but there are no symptoms - guidelines recommend not treating children with this whereas a lot of adults do get treatment. Height on the 30th centile doesn't sound abnormal in itself - by definition 1/3 of children are this height or below.

Is it a Paediatrician you are seeing for this? You could ask them to re-explain including in writing, or ask their Paediatrician endocrine lead locally for advice (there will be one even in a department where everyone is a generalist paediatrician too).