Hi Rupali,
I am a new mom joined this group recently. My 18month old daughter was diagnosed as Thal major when she was 11 days old. We were also looking for BMT option when we first heard about this condition. At the time, we met Thal specialist in Boston Children's hospital Dr. Neufeld and transplant specialist Deb Chirnomas (spelling ?). Both of them told us that the best time to do BMT is between 5 and 8 yeards old. It seems till 5 yrs of age, the brain develops and chemo therapy is not good for brain and cognitive development. So, BMT should be avoided till 5 yrs, if the condition is not life treatening. So, please think carefully when you decide on BMT for your daughter, as Thal is not life threatening and can be managed well with regular transfusion and chelation.
On Chelation, again my daughter's hemo says, for children, the chelation should be started when the ferritin level reaches between 1500 and 2000 and the child is above 2 yrs of age. If the ferritin is below 1000, the chelation medicine can chelate other useful elements like Zn, Cu etc which can affect growth and development. So, please talk to your hemo who is specialist in Thal to start any chelation for your daughter. Dr. Cheddy may be a great transplant specialist but he may not fully know about chelation to suggets the best approach for managing Thal.
Whatever you decide, I will pray for you for positive outcome.