weight or thyroid?

[bagpussmice]

dd1 has recently started putting on weight at a noticable rate. She is eating no differently than normal, has a very healthy appetite, in fact I have cut out puddings in favour of fruit & yoghurt drinks recently as I am worried about her weight.
I have an underactive thyroid and wondered whether I should get her checked out?
both dh and I are and always have been long & lean, so am surprised she is growing this way.

How old is she? She may be eating stuff you haven't given her. But you are right that thyroid probs can be inherited. Also consider how much exercise she is getting. Perhaps you and dh always walked 3 miles each way to school every day and now work out every day in the gym.

elasticmum, she is 5. she doesn't get heaps of exercise, we are in the unfortunate postiion of not being lucky enough to walk to school. I do try and park the car further away so we at least have a short walk to get to school. she does trampolining and swimming once a week.
not sure what else we can do.

Perhaps you might keep a food diary for her for a week or two. If you can keep her unaware you are doing this, so much the better. Try to find out what she is having at school - do teachers give out sweets for good work? Do other children bring in sweets for the whole class when it's their birthday? You could also make a note of how much time she spends in front of tv, computer or in car. When you've done that you can look at the diary and decide whether you think that is a suitable diet for her. It's great that she has a healthy appetite and probably a credit to your cooking! If after this monitoring for a week or two you still cannot see why she is putting on weight you could make an appt to see GP and take the diary with you.

I don't know if the other side effects of low thyroid would be the same in a 5 year old as an adult but when mine stopped functioning properly I had depression, dry skin, awful tiredness, hair loss and an intolerance to cold. Plus the weight gain. Does any of that fit your dd?