In the growth and development clinic, about 20% of children with short stature are “idiopathic short stature” (ISS). Most parents mistakenly believe that idiopathic short stature is not a disease and choose not to intervene or treat it, which results in a delayed treatment, and the child’s future height may be much lower than the genetic height.
Case 1: Xiao Qian, 11 years old, has been significantly lower than her peers since childhood, and her height was only 126 cm when she came to the clinic. Her father is 174cm tall and her mother is 157cm tall, while her skeletal age has reached 11 years old and she has entered the late stage of pubertal development. At this time, if treated with growth hormone and other treatments, the cost is large, but the treatment effect is far less than when treatment is started at a younger age. Even after treatment, Xiao Qian’s future height will be difficult to reach 1.5 meters, and parents regret it.
The incidence of idiopathic dwarfism is high, and most parents delay treatment. idiopathic dwarfism (ISS) is a kind of short stature with no clear cause for the time being, and is a common cause of children’s dwarfism. Therefore, many parents do not take it seriously and wait for their children to grow up during puberty with the traditional concept of “late growth” and “23 leaps and bounds”, which delays the treatment; some parents are worried about the side effects of drugs and choose not to treat it.
If not treated, idiopathic dwarfism will seriously affect the child’s lifelong height, which may lead to difficulties in school, employment, marriage and socialization in adulthood, and also affect the child’s personality development.
If your child gains less than 4 centimeters per year, you should seek medical attention in a timely manner. There are rules for children to grow taller. Generally, the first year after birth, the child’s height grows 25 cm, the second year 10 cm, after 2 weeks of age until puberty, 5-7 cm per year, into puberty, the average male child height grows about 10 cm per year, the average annual growth of girls about 8 cm.
Parents had better make a height record for their children since childhood, and note down the height value every quarter. Once you find that your child grows less than 4 cm in a year after 2 years old, sits in the first row of the class for a long time, and is lower than 3% of the values in this column of the corresponding age group in the chart below, you should pay attention to the fact that your child may have a growth disorder problem, and you should seek help from a doctor as early as possible.
The younger the child is, the more active the growth and differentiation of the epiphyseal cartilage layer is, the more sensitive the child is to growth hormone treatment, and the more effective the drug is in promoting growth. The heavier the child is, the higher the dose of medication and the higher the cost of treatment.
It should be reminded that children who are short should not “throw themselves at the doctor”, and should not blindly believe in various advertisements and give their children height-enhancing supplements, which are mostly high-protein foods or a combination of various nutrients that may contain sex hormones. This can have the opposite effect.
Therefore, if parents find that their children are half a head lower than their peers for a long time, have been sitting in the first row of the class, grow less than 4 cm a year, and the height of the control table is less than 3% of the age group, they should be brought to a regular hospital specialist for consultation at the first time.