With the improvement of living standards, the average height of young people is also gradually increasing, and parents expect their children’s height to be “higher and higher”. However, childhood dwarfism has become another big enemy of children’s health after obesity and early maturity. Because most parents know too little about the growth and development of children and adolescents, they are often influenced by some traditional ideas and miss the best time to treat their children.
Fifty percent of dwarfism is caused by endocrine diseases What causes dwarfism? In addition to family genetics, most of the causes of dwarfism are caused by diseases. Endocrine diseases cause more than 50% of clinical dwarfism patients, the most common of which is pituitary secretion growth hormone disorder, and growth hormone is the most important hormone to promote the growth of bones and organs after birth.
According to the report, most of the children with growth hormone deficiency start to show slow growth after the age of 1. They tend to show proportional dwarfism, and may be adults in their 20s, but they always have a baby face, and even their voices are still childish, yet their intelligence is the same as normal people.
The growth hormone deficiency also makes the affected child a step behind in all development, especially in the reproductive system. If these children are not treated with growth hormone, they will become what we call “little dwarfs”, usually only about 1.45 meters tall as adults for males and no more than 1.35 meters tall for females.
The correct understanding of dwarfism, out of two major misconceptions Misconception 1: children grow small is late growth Some children grow slower than other children since childhood, parents think it is late growth or nutrition can not keep up, did not timely medical consultation, or give children to supplement nutrition. Many children only bring their children to the clinic for the first time when they reach puberty. If the child is diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency, although there is hope that the child will reach the ideal height, the treatment effect is much worse than when the child was young, and the treatment cost is also much higher.
Myth 2: If parents are tall, their children must be tall too Many parents think that their parents are tall and their children must be tall, and that slow growth is late growth. When they reach puberty, they are still shorter than other children, and only then do they come to the hospital. In some cases, no abnormality is found after examination, but the height of the child is more than 2 standard deviations behind that of other children of the same age, and this type of dwarfism is clinically called idiopathic dwarfism.
How to detect “childhood dwarfism” early?
Slow growth is defined as growth <5cm per year after the age of 2 years. If the height is less than 2 standard deviations or less than 3% of the same sex and age, it is considered as dwarfism. Short stature should be detected, diagnosed and treated early. Parents should get into the habit of monitoring their children’s growth and development. Once a child is found to be short, be sure to take the child to the pediatrician or pediatrics department of a regular hospital at the first opportunity. Dwarfism in clinical practice emphasizes early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment. The younger the child is, the stronger the ability of the cartilage layer of the epiphysis to proliferate and differentiate, the more space and potential the child has for growth, and the better the effect of drugs to promote growth; on the other hand, the cost of treatment for dwarfism is positively related to the weight of the patient. It is best to start treatment at the age of 4 or 5. In addition, some children with short stature have organic diseases (e.g. hydrocephalus, pituitary tumor, etc.), and short stature is only the earliest symptom. If your child is lower than children of the same age and gender, they are within the scope of needing to be examined. Warm tip: Because some of the tests require fasting blood sampling, children attending the clinic need to fast and abstain from water in the morning. Free bone age check is available during winter and summer vacations!