I. Characteristics of children’s growth and development: The most important characteristic of children from 0 to 18 years old is that the organs and tissues of the body gradually develop and mature, and the whole growth and development process is continuous but not smooth and uniform. Medical science usually divides human growth and development into 4 stages, namely fetal, infant, child and adolescent development. The growth and development of the fetus is affected by the health condition of the mother, nutrition and placental function, etc. About 20% of children born with low weight or insufficient height (called children less than gestational age) will be short in stature when they become adults. Therefore, health care during pregnancy is crucial. Infancy is the most rapid growth stage in a person’s life, from birth to 1 week of age, with height increasing by about 25 cm, length at 1 year of age being 1.5 times that at birth, and weight increasing by 6 to 7 kg, three times that at birth. Nutrition, health status and thyroid function are important factors affecting the height of children during this period. 1 to 3 years old is called the early childhood period, with an annual height growth rate of 10 to 12 cm, and the height at 3 years old correlates with the average height of its parents and the eventual height in adulthood by about 80%. Therefore, it is very important to pay attention to the growth of infants and toddlers. After 4 years of age, the rate of height growth begins to decrease each year, reaching a minimum of about 5 cm/year before puberty. This period is regulated by the endocrine system, including growth hormone and thyroxine, and related growth disorders can be detected with special tests. Most girls reach puberty around the age of 10 and boys around the age of 12, when secondary sexual characteristics begin to appear. The rate of height growth increases during this period, which is medically known as “pubertal surge”, commonly known as “string growth”, and the height can increase by 20 to 25 cm. This period is due to the synergistic effect of sex hormones and growth hormone. Premature puberty is called “precocious puberty”, which can lead to aging and early closure of the epiphyseal growth plate, resulting in short stature in adulthood. The main factors affecting children’s height include genetic factors, disease factors, nutritional status, psychological factors, environmental factors, etc. Genetic factors mainly refer to the average height of both parents and grandparents, which has an impact on the lifetime height of 20-40%, and growth disorders due to chromosomal or genetic abnormalities and endocrine system diseases are more common, while factors such as geography, nutrition, health status and psychological factors on adult height cannot be ignored. Short stature (formerly known as dwarfism) is medically defined as a child whose height is more than 2 standard deviations lower than the mean height of people of the same race, age, and gender or below the 3rd percentile in a similar environment; in layman’s terms, 100 children of the same age, gender, and race are lined up by height, and the last 3 children are short stature. We often encounter this phenomenon in outpatient clinics: mothers and fathers bring their children who are already in high school to the clinic, and when the test results show that the children have no hope of growing taller, the children cry bitterly, and the mothers and fathers repeatedly ask in despair: Is there no other way? Yes, once the epiphyses of the bones are fully fused, there is no hope for growth. Therefore, the sooner you pay attention to the height of your child, the better. A weekly magazine once said, “With the improvement of living standards, comes the era of dwarf-phobia, and more and more children are caught in the distress and confusion about their height, followed by high fascination and a series of tragedies of height increase.” Some unscrupulous businessmen take advantage of people’s fear of dwarfism and spend a lot of money on TV videos, newspapers and magazines and the Internet to set up a series of “height increase traps” and confuse the boundaries between health products and therapeutic drugs. Some parents are deceived, and as a result, their children’s treatment opportunities are delayed. Some parents also hold the belief of “late growth” and wait and see, which makes some children lose the time for treatment. Growth retardation at any time during childhood can lead to short stature in adulthood, especially in infancy, because the growth rate in this period is the highest in life, therefore, attention to growth should begin in infancy. 4. Can short stature be treated? Most of the short stature can be medically intervened, such as growth hormone deficiency, precocious puberty, idiopathic dwarfism, hypothyroidism, gonadal dysgenesis, etc. If treated early, it can make the height reach the normal range and improve the quality of life. Growth hormone is a globally recognized growth-promoting drug, but it requires strict timing and dosage, with the disadvantage that it is expensive. Some other drugs such as lysine and Conradon can be used as adjuvant drugs.