radgirl and everyone - sorry, my CCleaner stopped the posts showing as new.
The youngster is my granddaughter though not really any difference as we spent years with one foot in the US and one in the UK.
Her dad is a professor with knowledge that crosses over into medicine. However, it's sometimes worse to know the technicalities, though this time it paid off. They're off up north (in Texas) tomorrow and I'm fairly sure, going the iodine route.
Everyone's been so comforting - friends that we had no idea about, tell of their decades on supplements. Surprising.
I think the irreversibility of the treatment is the main issue. It's the burden of making a decision for the child. But, that's what parents have to do. For my part, I just wish I could be there to help out and there's a certain irony in the fact that I'd have stayed there if it hadn't been the cost of American medicine for an uninsurable old bloke. Strangely, today, I read that the US is one of the top spenders per capita in medicine, though goodness knows where it goes.