Is my newborn baby having hypothyroidism?

Q: My 13 days old newborn baby seems to be having hypothyroidism and now she has been given Thyroxine 0.025 mg daily. A thyroid test done on 6th day showed the results: T4 - 1.97 ng/dL (ref. Range - 0.8-2.0), T3 - 4.99 pg/mL (ref. range - 1.4-4.0), TSH - 13.76 uIU/mL (ref. range - 0.3-5.0). Is she having high TSH value? Is this condition called congenital hypothyroidism? What are the other tests need to be done to confirm hypothyroidism?

A:To make a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, the steps are:

1. Screening TSH if >30 (Most of the developed countries do TSH as screening test for all the babies born)
2. Repeat TSH with FT4
3. If FT4 low then start treatment immediately
4. If FT4 normal then repeat tests after 2 weeks

Now about your child; I presume that TSH for the first time was done on day 6 only and she is only 13 and FT4 is normal.

So finally if these tests are done for the first time then your child is very unlikely to have hypothyroidism and she should not be treated and a repeat test should be done after few weeks.