This is the question I get asked most frequently. Let me answer this and a few other common questions. This is just information I have collected over the years and not an official medical opinion. What is Congenital Hypothyroidism? Congenital basically just means you are born with it instead of acquiring it later in life. Hypothyroidism usually means an underactive thyroid gland (as opposed to hyperthyroidism which is an overactive thyroid). With children, it can mean that they are either born without a thyroid gland, they are born with an underdeveloped or misplaced thyroid gland, or they are born with a thyroid gland that just doesn't work as it should. For my kids, it's the latter - they have thyroid glands that seem normal, … [Read more...]