The incidence of dwarfism in urban children has been on the rise in recent years, and more than half of the parents of children with the condition have fallen into the misconception that their children grow late, do not lack nutrition and are inherited from their families.
Only timely understanding of the cause and treatment before epiphyseal closure can help children grow taller In fairy tales, the seven dwarfs and Snow White live happily in the forest, and instead of being discriminated against, they have become synonymous with affection and cuteness. However, in real life, the problems associated with short stature are numerous. “The physical and mental development of people with dwarfism is greatly affected. Compared with normal children, although they have a normal IQ, they have psychologically introverted and emotionally unstable personality traits; behaviorally there is poor interaction and social withdrawal. Surveys show that more than 90% of children with dwarfism have psychological disorders such as low self-esteem and depression, and some children are even unwilling to go to school because of their excessively short stature. In addition, the defective stature also directly affects their schooling, employment and marriage. According to clinical observation, the incidence of dwarfism in urban children has increased in recent years, and most parents know little about it. Therefore, it is important to understand the disease in time. Therefore, we remind that only timely understanding of the cause of the disease and treatment before epiphyseal closure can help children grow taller.
What is dwarfism? At present, the standard deviation method and height percentile method are used clinically to determine short stature, i.e. a child whose height is lower than the 3rd percentile or two standard deviations of the normal height standard for children of the same age, sex, region and ethnicity can be diagnosed as dwarfism.
Since the child’s growth period is a continuous activity and different people with dwarfism have different growth patterns, the only way to detect if a child has a growth retardation problem is to pay attention to the child’s growth from an early age and to understand its height at each stage in terms of horizontal and vertical ratios as much as possible. The incidence of dwarfism has increased in recent years, which may be related to the child’s own growth hormone deficiency, precocious puberty or parental feeding practices. Dwarfism seriously affects the physical quality of the nation, and how to promote the growth of short stature is not only a medical issue, but also a social issue that deserves attention.
Myths: Half of the parents think that short stature is related to heredity Our hospital has conducted a follow-up survey on many children with dwarfism. The best time to diagnose and treat dwarfism is missed, leaving children with lifelong regrets.
According to the survey, at least half of the parents of children with dwarfism think that their children’s height is related to family genetic inheritance, and that it is normal for their children to be short because their parents are not tall, and the result is the same with or without treatment; a quarter of the parents think that their children’s height is lower than that of children of the same age because they are late in development, which is a late growth. One quarter of parents think that if they give their children enough nutrition every day, there is nothing they can do even if their children’s height is lower than their peers. More than 80% of parents lack the necessary knowledge about the harm caused by children’s short stature. Many parents do not know that their children’s slow growth is also a disease, they either leave their children’s height to time, or spend a lot of money to supplement their children’s nutrition, use height increasing devices, and these blind measures often delay the treatment, or even counterproductive.
Treatment: Identifying the cause is the key Dwarfism is actually treatable, the key is to identify the cause. “Dwarfism is partly caused by organic diseases and partly caused by non-disease factors. Organic diseases mainly include endocrine abnormalities, skeletal lesions or other diseases, among which growth hormone deficiency is the most common, followed by precocious puberty, and some are caused by intrauterine growth retardation or chromosomal abnormalities. Non-disease-induced dwarfism includes familial dwarfism, somatic dwarfism, and delayed physiological puberty development.”
Timing of treatment is crucial, and if treatment can be done in time before epiphyseal closure, the child can expect to reach normal height. However, if the treatment time is already missed, these children will be short for the rest of their lives.
It is also very important for doctors to grasp the skills in treatment. Firstly, physical examination and bone age determination should be conducted to clearly understand the growth and development status of the child using bone age inference; secondly, necessary endocrine function tests should be conducted, and genetic analysis and imaging examination should also be conducted for individual children.
Reminder: The younger the child, the more room for growth There are two growth spurts in the process of growth and development of children – infancy and pre-puberty. The entire process is regulated by a variety of factors, and an individual’s final height is influenced by genetics, birth height, nutrition, hormones, environment, and disease. Among the many factors, growth hormone plays a decisive role in the entire growth process. One of the more common forms of dwarfism, growth hormone deficiency dwarfism, is a decrease in growth rate due to insufficient secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland, also known as pituitary dwarfism. Zhu Shunye emphasized that if growth hormone deficiency dwarfism is diagnosed, growth hormone replacement therapy is needed and should be based on the principles of early, timely, adequate and long-term.
Research shows that the younger the child is, the more active the growth and differentiation of the cartilage layer of the epiphysis, the greater the growth potential and space, the more sensitive the child is to treatment, and the better the growth effect; moreover, the younger the child is, the lighter the weight, the smaller the dose of medication, and the smaller the cost. Therefore, it is important not to wait until the later stages of development, such as 15 to 18 years old, when the epiphysis is close to or completely closed, with little or no growth potential, and it is no longer possible to achieve the ideal height.