The first thing I did was to sit in the first row of the class, and I was usually placed in the top three in gym class. We bought him a lot of nutritional supplements, what calcium tablets and so on, but it seems to have no effect. Why is he not growing? Is it because he has dwarfism? I heard that growth hormone can increase height, but don’t hormones have side effects? I would like to ask for some advice.
Answer: Dr. Shen Ina, Director of Pediatrics, Yiji Mountain Hospital, Wanan Medical College If your child always sits in the first three rows of the class because he is short, and his annual growth rate is less than 4 cm, and the gap between him and children of the same age is gradually widening, you should pay attention to whether he has dwarfism. This is a disease, but 70% of parents in China are not aware of it, blindly using health supplements to “help increase height”, resulting in spending a lot of money, but in exchange for missing the best treatment period, resulting in the child forever hanging the nickname “dwarf”. The reason is that health supplements are not effective in increasing height. The only way is to identify the cause of the problem and then treat it in a targeted manner.
The causes of dwarfism include endocrine diseases, developmental delays, chromosomal abnormalities, etc. A significant number of children suffer from growth hormone deficiency, which can be treated with growth hormone injections. The word “hormone” makes many parents shy away from it, but in fact, the word “hormone” usually refers to glucocorticoids and sex hormones, which are steroid hormones secreted by the adrenal glands and gonads, and excessive levels will cause adverse reactions. However, growth hormone is completely different from these two types of hormones in terms of source, chemical structure and physiological and pharmacological effects. It is a protein secreted by the anterior pituitary gland and is responsible for regulating the normal growth of the human body from birth to adulthood. With proper growth hormone injections and timely review and follow-up, parents do not have to worry about the side effects of hormones.
When boys and girls reach the age of 4, growth hormone and thyroid hormone are basically formed in the body. Therefore, 4 to 6 years old is the ideal age for the diagnosis and treatment of short stature caused by growth hormone deficiency. In China, children with dwarfism receive treatment later, and 70% of them are already 11-16 years old when they are discovered, while the average age of treatment in foreign countries is 6 years old. The older the age of onset of treatment, the smaller the improvement in adult height.
To determine whether a child can still grow and how much he can grow, you can take your child to a regular hospital for a bone age test. Generally speaking, if the bone age of girls exceeds 15 years old and that of boys exceeds 17 years old, the epiphysis has mostly closed and the chance of growing taller is very small.
Parents are advised to measure their children’s height every 3 months. If the growth rate is too slow, or if the infant is 25 cm shorter than other children from 0 to 1 year old, 10 cm shorter than other children from 1 to 2 years old, and 5 cm shorter than other children after 2 years old, you need to come to our clinic in time to see it, which can maximize the child’s adult height.