Congenital hypothyroidism is said to be an odd endocrine infection of the thyroid gland which affects almost 1 out of 4,000 infants. This endocrine infection is a minute butterfly like gland that is positioned in the anterior neck. This infection produces thyroid hormones to control the mental and physical growth of the body. When this infection occurs in infants it does not produce sufficient level of thyroid hormones. Triiodothyronine or T3 and Thyroxine or T4 are usually covered by the thyroid glands. In fact thyroid hormones have various effects on metabolism which affects most of the body's organ system.

The emission of thyroid hormones is encouraged by TSH which is emitted from the pituitary glands which in turn is emitted in response to the TRH which is emitted by hypothalamus. Hypothyroidism in the infants may result from the lack of or due to the abnormal growth of thyroid glands, failure of encouragement of thyroids by pituitary, defective synthesis of thyroid hormones and destruction of thyroid glands.

Causes of Congenital Hypothyroidism

Most of the congenital hypothyroidism cases occur periodically, which results due to the errors in the growth of thyroid glands. In these conditions, the thyroid glands generally fail to develop, may have actually formed partially or have developed in the wrong place. The errors in the growth of thyroid glands results in damaging the functions of the thyroids encouraging hormones. Some of the other congenital hypothyroidism cases are developed due to the autosomal recessive qualities. If this case develops in infants it can affect thyroid metabolism in the thyroid glands. Lack of iodine was once the main contributor to this type of disease. With the extensive introduction of iodine in the diet, the number of casualties attributed to the lack of iodine has been reduced significantly.