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 Hi, my name is Blythe Clifford. I have two beautiful sons, William and Alexander. Both of them were diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism (“CH”) during their first few weeks of life.
While I had heard of hypothyroidism because I was diagnosed with it prior to conceiving William, I didn’t know that babies could be born with it. I didn’t even know that it was part of the state-mandated newborn screening. When my husband and I were informed of the diagnosis, I recall feeling overwhelmed and very concerned for William’s overall health and development. Over time, we all grew accustomed to the frequent blood draws, learned what T4, TSH and FT4 stand for, and figured out how to best administer thyroid hormone replacements to William.
When I was pregnant Alex, we knew that there was a chance he would have CH as well, but we hoped that wouldn’t be the case. We were disappointed when we got the call from our pediatrician and then our pediatric endocrinologist; however we also knew that after dealing with this for 4 years, we have become pros at this. William and Alex’s doctors are fabulous, and we have a great relationship with the lab technicians now as well.
Part of what has made this journey easier for us is the MAGIC Foundation. I found the MAGIC Foundation when doing research on CH after William was born in 2006. They have been a phenomenal resource for our family. Having someone to call was an important part of establishing my comfort level with CH. I am excited about hopefully providing the same assistance and comfort to other families dealing with CH.
If you have a child with a thyroid condition, please join our parent chatroom (free) on our Yahoo Listserv (Yahoo button to this area is at the top right of the previous page). You need a Yahoo email address (free) to sign up but it is a great way to understand all of this and talk with other parents. After you get your Yahoo email account to to
http://www.magicfoundation.org/www/docs/997.1544/general-message-board.html on the lower left side of the purplish blue boxes) and click on the subscribe button for our group. We will make sure your sign up is not a junk mailer and let it through manually. Thanks so much!
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