Heather Rae Young revealed she was recently diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, which caused her to feel ‘exhausted all the time.’
Nine months after giving birth to her son, Tristan, in January, the Selling Sunset star opened up about suffering from the autoimmune disorder after suffering from telltale signs of the thyroid condition, such as fatigue and difficulty concentrating.
Ultimately, the 36-year-old realized she needed to see a doctor, per the suggestion of a lactation consultant, after noticing a drastic drop in her ability to produce milk for her newborn.
‘My brain was so tired. My body was so tired,’ she recalled during an interview with Today.com. ‘No amount of sleep could make it better.’
Thyroid condition: Heather Rae Young revealed she was recently diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, which caused her to feel ‘exhausted all the time’
Her Hashimoto’s disease symptoms began affecting her ability to shoot her reality shows, including The Flipping El Moussas, as she described filming as ‘absolutely brutal’ due to her lack of energy.
After giving bloodwork done, the new mom learned that her pregnancy had triggered Hashimoto’s disease, which left her ‘in total shock.’
After getting on medication to treat the condition, the wife of HGTV star Tarek El Moussa said she immediately began ‘feeling much better.’
Before getting treatment, Young recalled telling her assistant that she felt ‘dead’ and chalked up feeling ‘foggy’ to ‘mom brain.’
While she no longer suffers from insufficient milk production, Young said her little boy prefers ‘baby purees and goat milk formula’ to breastfeeding.
‘I would put him on my chest and he wouldn’t even try to suck. Then he’d start blowing bubbles,’ Heather Ray explained. ‘I still offer it to him — I offered it to him this morning, but he’s just not interested anymore. He’s a busy boy and he wants to be off playing.’
Still, she misses nurses and the skin-to-skin time.
Young is relieved, however, that her infant made the decision to stop as she said it ‘would have been so much harder if it were the other way around.’
Feeling exhausted: Nine months after giving birth to her son, Tristan, in January 2023, the Selling Sunset star opened up about suffering from the autoimmune disorder after suffering from telltale signs of the thyroid condition, such as fatigue and difficulty concentrating (seen in December 2022)
Scary: Ultimately, the 36-year-old realized she needed to see a doctor, per the suggestion of a lactation consultant, after noticing a drastic drop in her ability to produce milk for her newborn
Her breastfeeding journey has been a bumpy ride as ‘Tristan was born with a tongue-tie’ that restricted his tongue mobility and impacted her ability to feed him.
In June, she told Today, ‘Tristan had a lot working against him in the beginning — the poor thing could not suck. It was almost like he was trying to suck through a straw that has a hole in it,’
She added: ‘He started losing a lot of weight. It was awful.’
Ultimately, he underwent a laser frenectomy to solve the problem.
In addition to sharing Tristan with El Moussa, she is a doting stepmother to his two eldest children Taylor, 13, and Brayden, 8, from his past marriage to Christina Hall.
Family first: While reflecting on how becoming a mom changed their world, the TV personality gushed about how she and her spouse are still ‘joined at the hip’
‘It can be a challenge on a relationship because you’re so focused on the baby… but he is so understanding of everything, and we’re really good at communicating,’ the mother-of-one said
Earlier this year, she opened up about how becoming a mother has affected her relationship with her spouse.
While reflecting on how welcoming their first child together, changed their world, the TV personality gushed about how she and her man are still ‘joined at the hip.’
‘We are true best friends. We’re true soulmates,’ the former Playboy Playmate told Us Weekly.
Still, the mother-of-one admitted: ‘It can be a challenge on a relationship because you’re so focused on the baby… but he is so understanding of everything, and we’re really good at communicating.’
The Anaheim native, who stars alongside her man on HGTV series The Flipping El Moussas, noted that ‘it’s so hard to even leave’ her little one to ‘run errands’ or ‘go to the gym.’
Her first: Over the summer, the Anaheim native, who stars alongside her man on HGTV series The Flipping El Moussas, admitted that ‘it’s so hard to even leave’ her little one to ‘run errands’ or ‘go to the gym’
‘I am absolutely obsessed with being a mom,’ she raved. ‘I’ve had practice with Taylor and Brayden, obviously, but going through the newborn stage and having a baby is a completely different ballgame.’
She continued: ‘At first it’s chaos, right? You have this new baby at home, you’re trying to figure out everything and you’re postpartum.’
‘Everything’s different. But I did not think I’d be this obsessed and in love with him. I knew I would love him, obviously, but it’s, like, this obsession and love,’ Young told the outlet.
The bombshell went on to discuss how motherhood has changed her ‘for the better’ and ‘definitely’ made her ‘more calm and more patient and just more loving overall.’
‘I’m not letting things upset me and bother me. Like if something stressful is going on,’ she explained.
Young said if ‘people are being negative’ or ‘talking s**t out in public’ that she reminds herself that her ‘peace for Tristan is more important.’
