Short stature is defined as a child whose height is shorter than 2 standard deviations from the average height of healthy children of the same sex and age or whose height is below the 3rd percentile for children of the same age. Some people in the population whose height is between -2SD and +3SD are not patients, so it is sometimes more difficult to determine whether a child with short stature is normal or has a growth disorder. There are also some children with normal growth who can have sudden growth arrest for some reason, and their height is also shorter than -2SD after 1 to 2 years. In order to understand the growth pattern of each child, it is necessary to understand its growth percentile, to make detailed inquiries and careful physical examination of the genetic background, birth history, feeding history, growth history, and past history of the short child, and to make a comprehensive analysis and judgment in combination with its height at the age of In order to make a preliminary determination of whether the child has normal growth or growth disorder disease.
The percentage of children who are below the third percentile is 1.9 per 1,000, that is, about 2 out of 1,000 children are short, among which 1 out of 10 children with familial dwarfism and 1 out of 5 children with somatic growth delay (so-called late growth children) are short. In other words, about 4 out of 10 children with short stature are caused by genetic factors such as short stature of parents or late puberty development.
Other causes are systemic diseases (e.g. malnutrition, chronic diarrhea, asthma), congenital and hereditary diseases and endocrine disorders that cause short stature. Of these, true growth hormone deficiency, i.e. pituitary dwarfism, is much less common, being about 1 in 8,646 children, or 1 in 10,000.