Short stature requires early diagnosis and treatment
(usually by age 10 for girls; by age 12 for children with difficulties)
Finding the cause is most important
Short stature is the most common endocrine disorder in children’s growth and development today, and is a major concern for children themselves, parents, teachers, and society. However, despite this, the consultation, diagnosis and treatment of short stature in children is always too late. Often, patients with dwarfism come to the doctor over the age of 25, and although they can increase in height with treatment, it is no longer possible to reach the final average height of adults. Therefore, early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment of dwarfism are very important.
The most common cause of dwarfism is the lack of growth hormone. It is easy to find out through laboratory examination that CT scan shows that the normal skull base of the pterygoid saddle contains a peanut-sized pituitary gland, which secretes growth hormone and can promote the growth of epiphysis and the growth of bone to both ends, and the stature will keep increasing. Other diseases such as familial short stature, delayed puberty, malnutrition growth disorder, congenital ovarian hypoplasia, and chondrodysplasia can cause growth disorders.
The earlier the treatment the better the outcome, at least 2 years before epiphyseal closure the better the effect of short stature, the younger the age to start the correct treatment, the better the effect. Studies have shown that children with dwarfism caused by growth hormone deficiency can be treated with growth hormone before the age of 3 to achieve a nearly normal and fast-growing height, and their final height is almost indistinguishable from that of normal people. However, very few patients can start treatment at the age of 3 to 4 years old, and most patients come to the clinic only after puberty because they encounter setbacks in school, job assignment, military, marriage, etc. At this time, the treatment is effective, but far less effective than the treatment when they were young.
The treatment of short stature is mainly selected according to different causes. The goals of treatment are: first, to maintain normal growth rate, second, to win rapid growth in adolescence, and third, to achieve final adult height.
Today’s endocrine science research fully proves that no medicine (including growth hormone) can make all short statured people grow taller, especially when the epiphysis has closed after pubertal development, no medicine can play a role in increasing height. The height-enhancing shoes, magnetic field pads, and bone-breaking height-enhancing surgery are even more tricks to cheat people of their money.
However, patients with short stature should not despair, and those who want to grow taller should make plans early. For example, drink a glass of milk in the morning and evening, often eat shrimp, seafood is the nutritional basis for growing taller, keep stretching exercise (such as jumping rope, climbing stairs, playing basketball, jumping high, swimming, etc.), so that the epiphysis reach enough stimulation; ensure good sleep to make growth hormone secretion to a higher level. All these help to make the short stature can be close to the normal height.
The conditions that must be in place for a long height
Whether a child’s physical growth is coordinated and eventually reaches the desired height at the appropriate age depends on the influence of many factors. Some factors are unchangeable (e.g., genetics) and some are modifiable (e.g., nutrition). Paying early attention to height problems will make half the effort.
Genetic factors.
Height is multi-gene inheritance. If the parents are not tall, pay attention to the acquired environment to make up for the congenital deficiency. For those whose parents have genetic factors, do not have unrealistic fantasies about the final height.
Ensure sleep.
The secretion of growth hormone has a circadian rhythm. In normal people, 45 to 90 minutes after going to sleep, there is a very obvious rise in plasma growth hormone, which can reach more than 10 times of the daytime level. Therefore, children and adolescents to ensure adequate sleep is an important factor in growing taller, sleep every night before 10 o’clock, and ensure 7 hours of mature sleep every day. If children have bedwetting should be treated early to prevent the impact on height.
Adhere to exercise.
Normal people spend the night on an empty stomach and wake up in the morning with low growth hormone levels; after exercise, especially after climbing the stairs, growth hormone secretion increases significantly. Sports, such as basketball, swimming, rope skipping, standing and touching, stair climbing, etc., can not only promote growth hormone secretion, but also stimulate the growth of epiphysis, so insisting on these sports from childhood can help you grow taller.
Nutritional conditioning.
Milk is rich in arginine can stimulate the secretion of growth hormone, so if you have dairy products or drink fresh milk three times a day, it can promote the growth of height, especially drinking milk before bedtime is more important. Milk is rich in active and easily absorbed calcium, which also plays an important role in ossification. Fresh shrimp and sea shrimp rice are also rich in arginine.
Eliminate anxiety.
Anxiety and a poor home environment can both affect your child’s height. Creating a relaxed, free and positive environment for your child can play an important and positive role in improving height.
Avoid obesity.
Increased concentrations of fatty acids in the blood can inhibit the secretion of growth hormone. It has been determined that both spontaneous and stimulus-induced growth hormone secretion is inhibited in obese children, and the height of obese children is significantly lower than that of normal weight children. If children are found to be obese, they should actively reduce their body weight through exercise or other scientific treatments to reduce the level of fatty acids in the blood so that the release of growth hormone is more fluent.
In conclusion, in general, those with taller parents, more adequate nutrition and more diligent physical activity have taller stature. However, all of these influences need to be based on physiological amounts of growth hormone. When the annual growth rate of children over 4 years old is found to be less than 4.5 cm, a growth hormone and epiphysis examination should be done, and if a deficiency is found, it is time to supplement the treatment sooner, the better. Supplemental growth hormone treatment after 18 years old is three times less effective. May all parents in the world create good growth conditions for their children, and short stature is valuable to treat early.