Clinically, children who are more than 5 cm to 10 cm below the average height of children of the same age, sex, and race are considered to have dwarfism. Currently, for children between the ages of 6 and 12, a “formula calculation” can be used to determine whether the height is normal. “Height = age x 7 + 70 (cm), if it is 2 standards below normal (5 cm), it is considered dwarfism.” In fact, if you want to know how tall your child can grow, you can take a bone age test. The bone age test is an orthopantomogram of a child’s left wrist that compares the bone age with that of children of the same age to determine the maturity of the bones and to determine the child’s level of growth and development. Usually the rate of height growth is not significant when the bone age reaches 15 years for boys and 14 years for girls. The best age to treat short stature is from 5 to 10 years old.
Of course, some parents may still have the following misconceptions about their children’s height.
Some parents still have misconceptions about their children’s height, thinking that if their parents are tall, their children must be tall. In fact, genetic factors only account for about 70% of the factors that affect a child’s height, but the child’s final height is also affected by a variety of factors such as nutrition, exercise, sleep, psychology and environment. In addition, if the child suffers from endocrine diseases such as growth hormone deficiency and idiopathic dwarfism, the height will be completely independent of the genetic factors.
Some parents also blindly wait for their children, holding the traditional concept of “early growth and late growth” and “23 leaps and bounds”, believing that their children’s height will grow sooner or later, and that it does not matter if they are short for a while, which makes their children miss the best time for height intervention and treatment.
Finally, we remind parents that if their children are short and growing slowly, parents should take their children to the relevant specialist in the regular hospital for consultation, and the earlier the treatment, the better the effect and the lower the cost. Don’t wait until your child’s epiphysis is closed and there is no more room for growth before you regret. In addition, do not blindly believe in some advertising and publicity, randomly give children to take heightening health care products. The market is mixed with height-enhancing health care products of varying quality, many of which contain harmful ingredients such as sex hormones, which can easily lead to serious consequences such as premature sexual maturity in children.