Being in the first three rows, or dwarfism?
Whether in elementary or middle school, classes involve seating and standing in line, especially for freshmen. It is true that height and shortness are relative and the final height of human body is inseparable from genetic, environmental, nutritional, exercise, sleep and psychosocial factors, but if your child is still sitting in the first three rows of the class because of short height after a holiday, and the growth rate is less than 4 cm per year and the gap with children of the same age is gradually widening, you should pay more attention and take your child to a pediatric endocrinology specialist for consultation as early as possible Take your child to a pediatric endocrinologist for an early consultation.
In 2007, a survey on the height of 70,431 primary and secondary school students aged 6-18 in Shanghai showed that the average prevalence of dwarfism in young children was 3.77%.
Dwarfism is a disease Taking health supplements to “help growth” is often the first choice of parents of children with dwarfism, but the huge financial investment is a painful lesson, “health supplements are ineffective in increasing height!” The root of dwarfism is a disease, and the right way is to identify the cause and treat the cause. According to a survey, 70% of parents in China do not know that their children’s short stature may be caused by diseases. There are various causes of dwarfism, including endocrine diseases, familial dwarfism, somatic growth and developmental delay, chromosomal abnormalities, etc. Among them, some children suffer from growth hormone deficiency, which is a growth disorder and short stature caused by insufficient secretion of growth hormone, and used to be called “pituitary dwarfism”. For these children, the use of growth hormone injections is an effective treatment measure.
When they learned of the diagnosis, many parents immediately gave up on the treatment, “Growth hormone is a ‘hormone’, how can children use it? There will be many adverse reactions!” What people usually call “hormones” generally refers to glucocorticoids and sex hormones, and parents are concerned about using these hormones for their children, although they are also called “hormones”, growth hormone is not among them.
Growth hormone is a protein hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland and consists of 191 amino acids. It is essential for the regulation of normal growth from birth to adulthood, and is the only hormone that causes linear bone growth. Growth hormone used as a drug is synthesized using recombinant genetic techniques and has the exact same chemical structure as the growth hormone produced by the human pituitary gland. Glucocorticoid is a steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex. Sex hormones are several steroid hormones secreted by the gonads and adrenal cortex. Whether in terms of source, chemical structure, or physiological and pharmacological effects, growth hormones are completely different from glucocorticoids and sex hormones. Proper injection of growth hormone and timely follow-up will not produce glucocorticoid or sex hormone-like effects and side effects.
After the doubts about drugs have been cleared up, the next step is how to grasp the best time to treat dwarfism. At the age of 4, growth hormone and thyroid hormone are basically formed in the body, and diet and sleep habits are gradually formed, so we can see whether there are defects in the figure.
It is recommended that parents measure their children’s height every 2 months, and if the growth rate is too slow, it is time to see a doctor. Domestic treatment for dwarfism is received relatively late, with 70% of the age range being between 11 and 16 years old. In contrast, the average age of treatment abroad is 6 years. The older age of initiation of treatment contributes less to adult height, and early treatment can maximize the adult height of the child. Therefore, 4-6 years of age is the ideal age for the diagnosis and treatment of short stature caused by growth hormone deficiency.