The prevalence of an overactive thyroid in children

I can only imagine how you would feel if you walked out of the doctor’s office with, “Your son has Graves’ disease/hyperthyroidism.” No more explanations, at least not enough for you to understand what happened and where you went wrong.

However, I understand how you feel, as a mother and as a former patient of Graves’ disease.

But you probably still don’t. Things like that just happen, even with young children, teenagers, or young people just entering their lives. Unfortunately, it started happening a lot, even a little too often recently, as I can see from the emails I get from concerned and devastated parents. Graves’ disease is no longer reserved for women ages 45 to 55.

So here are some suggestions you can take to help your child overcome hyperthyroidism or Graves’ disease:

1. Make sure your child doesn’t get involved in too many activities at school or outside of school. If you or the child feel that they are “overloaded”, let them, it is better to be safe than sorry.

2. No excessive physical activities, such as too many sports, too much time spent on sports, in fact, if you can stop them for some time, it will be even better. The reason is that the child may have palpitations, and all active sports actually “load” him even more. He/she will have time in the future to do them, don’t worry about this.

3. Relax at least 11 hours a day, I don’t mean to sleep but to relax.

4. Meditation, yoga or both – If you can teach your child to do this, it will help a lot.

5. Diet: Avoid any coke or drinks that contain aspartame. Read the labels. Fresh juice is better than any soft drink.

6. Avoid foods high in iodine: nuts, shellfish, fish.

7. Your child needs to eat more goitrogenic foods: These are foods, usually leafy vegetables, that naturally inhibit the overproduction of iodine. Broccoli, cauliflower, any green leafy vegetables.

8. No multivitamins containing iodine. Check the labels.

9. Vitamin B complex – good for the nervous system, buy at any store without a prescription.

10. Recently it was reported that selenium has excellent effect on hyperthyroidism, please consult your GP for the corresponding dosage.

11. Last but not least, I would not recommend RAI or thyroidectomy to any child, but the corresponding medication, prescribed by your endocrinologist, should be taken accordingly to avoid future thyroid complications like thyroid storm.

My experience shows that children recover faster than adults and in just a few months, if you keep the above suggestions in mind, your child will feel much, much better.