Neonatal Thyroid Complications & the Implication of Maternal Thyroid Disorder

While we commonly think of thyroid disorders as a complication that affects adults, children can be adversely affected as well. When diagnosed with a thyroid disorder at a very young age, children with this complication will experience life long growth and development complications in addition to the common metabolic complications.

In most children with a congenital complication involving the thyroid, the complication is detected in infancy. For some children, however, the complication may not appear until grade school or even adolescence. As part of your child's routine pediatric health visits, therefore, it is important to ask your child's pediatrician to run the appropriate laboratory work to check thyroid levels and diagnosis, if necessary, an early case of hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.

When your child's laboratory work detects a potential complication involving the thyroid gland, your pediatrician will most likely refer your child to an endocrinologist. Using ultrasound technology, an image of your child's thyroid can reveal complications involving tumor or mass development, which may be the underlying cause of a thyroid disorder in childhood.

If you are a woman that suffers from thyroid complications during, or before, pregnancy, there is an increased risk your child will suffer from the complication as well. While only two percent of the cases of thyroid disorder in children are related to maternal influence, the risks still exists. In some children, especially newborns, it is rare to find the symptoms of hyperthyroidism, however it is possible. When symptoms of the rare neonatal hyperthyroidism are present, the complication will present as cardiac failure, a newborn that is extremely irritable and has an extremely high appetite for age and size.

In many children where thyroid dysfunction is suspected, the healthcare professional may choose to perform other tests beyond that of ultrasound and blood work. In addition, diagnostic studies such as uptake scans, using radioactive iodine, can rule out, or confirm, the presence of malignancy. Beyond the uptake scan, the use of perchlorate discharge tests is also quite common and uses and IV administration of potassium mixture to detect abnormalities in the thyroid function.

If there is a family history of thyroid disorder, it is important to ask your child's pediatrician to monitor your child's thyroid function on a regular basis. Because many thyroid disorders involve genetic or familial connection, with some simply related to congenital defect, your child's thyroid function is an important part of medical management. With early diagnosis, using these diagnostic studies, your physician can apply the early thyroid treatments needed to offset the risks for long term health complications, including abnormal growth and development.