If parents find that their child’s height growth is slow, less than 5 cm per year during childhood and less than 6 cm during adolescence, or if they find that their child’s height is lagging behind that of children of the same age, they should bring their child to a pediatric endocrinologist in a timely manner.
Please prepare the following information before the consultation: 1. Basic information about the child 1. Any abnormalities at birth, whether the child had low birth weight or was born prematurely. 2.
2. What are the child’s eating habits after birth, whether the child has poor appetite and insufficient nutritional intake.
3.How is the child’s sleep quality, whether the child sleeps too late.
4.Whether the child lacks physical activity.
5.Whether the child has chronic underlying diseases: such as congenital heart disease, chronic liver and kidney disease, recurrent vomiting, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal diseases.
Family history 1. The net height of the child’s parents (without shoes), if there is no exact data, can be measured on the spot at the hospital.
2. Any family members who are particularly short, less than 160 cm for males and less than 150 cm for females.
3. Whether the child’s father or mother has late growth.
Note: If it is the first time for your child to come to the hospital to check the cause of dwarfism, it is better to have an empty stomach on the day of the visit so that some items can be checked on the same day, such as liver and kidney function and trace elements, which need to be checked on an empty stomach.
When growth hormone stimulation test is needed After the child’s first visit, if the height measurement clearly indicates that the child is short and chronic liver, kidney and heart diseases are ruled out, and if hypothyroidism is ruled out, a growth hormone stimulation test is recommended.
What is growth hormone stimulation test? Physiologically, growth hormone is secreted in pulses at night after sleep, so the value of growth hormone in random blood test is often low, but this does not mean that the child is deficient in growth hormone. In order to clarify the cause of dwarfism, children with dwarfism need to undergo a growth hormone stimulation test, in which the growth hormone secretion is temporarily stimulated by medication, and the basal value of growth hormone is checked once before medication, and the peak value of growth hormone is measured again 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes after medication. Generally, it is necessary to be admitted to the hospital for examination, and two different drugs are used to stimulate it. Depending on the drug chosen to stimulate the test, the hospital stay varies from 1-2 days, and please fast on the examination day.