[Bobbi]

#1074978

Your best resource is your pediatrician with this question. I don’t know that the symptoms are any different from adult symptoms — and there’s lots of room for interpretation even then. My children were older, and I simply told them that they needed to make sure that their thyroids were checked annually. But if there is a reason to suspect an issue, then talk with the pediatrician.

[sjharner2001]

#1074979

Hi Cath,

My situaion is a bit different: being a nurse I knew of Graves, but not about it. We adopted our daughter when she was born and was not told of any medical concerns from her birthmom. Of course, her birthfather’s side was unknown. My daughter started c/o of itching. having frequent bowel movements, and her heart began to race early last summer. She does have prominent eyes, however, she has always had big eyes since being born. She hasn’t been gaining weight (33 lbs) and is a constant "grazer".
What tipped us off was that she kept spiking fevers about once every other week. Vomitting would accompany these fevers and they would resolve themselves in a days time.
In early August, she maintained this fever for 2 days and her pediatrician wasn’t able to see her, so I took her to an urgent care. Immediately, the doctor asked if she had graves. I was shocked! and of course, in disbelief. But I started asking that doctor questions and did my own research.
I ended up getting an appt with her pediatrician and low and behold her work-up showed out of range TSH, T4 and T3 levels.
I could kick myself you-know-where for not pursuing her symptoms earlier! I should have known!

From my experience (and if I had knowledge) that a blood relative has Graves or another thyroid disorder, I’d have had my daughter checked at an earlier age. The insurance may not have paid but at least it would have given me peace of mind. I’d definiely talk to your child’s doctor and see if thyroid tests can be run — especially with the symptoms you mentioned.

Janet

[Ski]

#1074980

If you want to get your child tested, and you do NOT believe there is much chance that Graves’ is what’s going on, then the recommendation would be to ask your doctor to "check the box" for a TSH test when they’re already going to be drawing blood for something else.

As far as symptoms in children, they’re pretty much the same as for adults. If you see four or five of the more prominent symptoms represented in your child (always feeling hot, difficulty sleeping, tremors, frequent/loose bowel movements, for example), then that would be the time to test just for thyroid.

It’s a good time to check in with the pediatrician about the other issues she’s experiencing anyway, and perhaps that will result in a blood test so you can be sure.

Graves’ is not directly genetically inherited ~ what we inherit is a predisposition to some type of autoimmune disease. It’s possible that in our children, it could show up as other autoimmune diseases, so it’s something you should all be aware of, going forward. This will be an important piece of their medical history.

[cath2284]

#1019913

Dear All,
A lot of people have discussed Graves in children on this discussion board and one mentioned "itchiness" in their child as a symptom. I was just diagnosed yesterday but now have started wondering about my children, specifically my oldest daughter who is 4 and wondering if she should be tested or if perhaps all of you had all of your children tested when you found out just as a precautionary method. Madie was born 2 months premature and weighed only 2 pounds (now my doctor thinks because of the Graves). She only stayed in the Newborn ICU for 1 month and has done remarkably well since. She has always been very thin (she weighs about 30 pounds right now and is almost 5). I never worried about this because both myself and my husband are smaller people anyway. However, the last 6 months or so she has been complaining about her stomach almost every day (saying "my tummy hurts") and is itchy all over her body. I chalked this up to too many baths (she likes to take a bath every day and we live in the West where it is dry) so I have been doing lotion twice a day but she still itches almost non-stop and the stomach thing we figured was just a child’s misunderstanding of feeling slightly naseuous or needing to go to the bathroom, etc. Again, I never thought much about it until I was reading on the website that itchiness is perhaps a symptom. So two questions:

1. What are the major symptoms in children of Graves disease?
2. Is it a good idea to get your kids checked? All of them? Those who have any sign of symptoms?

Thanks, Cath

[npatterson]

#1074981

Dear Cath,

We have an excellent paper of Students and Graves’ Disease. It talks about the symptoms in young children. Send me an e-mail (nancyngdf@bellsouth.net) and I will send it to you. As everyone else has said: Check with her Pediatrician, remember that your health is a part of her health history.

[Author]

Posts