”It is the common wish of parents that their children grow taller quickly. However, there are some children who have grown in age but always lag behind their peers in height. At this time of the year, the number of outpatient clinics is very high. Parents should regularly measure and record the height and weight of their children from birth, and if they find a trend of growth retardation, they should grasp the critical “catch-up period” for early treatment. Yu Jianing, Department of Pediatrics, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University Hormone Secretion Negative “Slack” Every time a patient comes to our hospital, some of them are children whose growth and development are a few beats slower than their peers, and there are especially many children who come to the outpatient clinic to see short and early development. These children often have no problems with their internal organs, are not taking drugs that cause growth retardation due to chronic diseases, and have no abnormalities in their intellectual development, but their short stature is partly due to the reduced secretion of growth hormone. Growth hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland, which promotes growth, makes long bones grow, and makes the body taller, and is the main hormone that regulates human growth. In addition to growth hormone, thyroid and sex hormones are also involved in the regulation of growth and development, and insufficient secretion of these two hormones can also lead to short stature. 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 caused by insufficient secretion of growth hormone. For these children, the use of growth hormone injections is an effective treatment measure. What is growth hormone? After learning the diagnosis, many parents have many concerns about the treatment, “Growth hormone is a ‘hormone’, how can children use it? There will be many adverse reactions!” Here we point out to parents that there are many kinds of hormones in the human body, and 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 one of 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. The child’s “growth trajectory” is measured based on the child’s height and weight, feeding status, micronutrient examination, endocrine assessment and bone age determination to determine whether the child is stunted, and to identify the causes of the stunting. Some parents do not know their child’s “growth trajectory”, such as how many centimeters their child has grown in a year? Parents cannot answer this question. It is recommended that parents should have a special book to measure and record their child’s height and weight regularly from birth. If an infant under the age of three grows less than 7 cm per year, less than 5 cm per year between the age of three and pre-puberty, or less than 6 cm per year during puberty, it may indicate that the child has a growth retardation problem. Parents can also pay attention to comparing their child’s height with that of children of the same age. If your child is significantly shorter than his or her peers, or if he or she used to be at a normal height but has gradually slipped to the lower-middle level, it may indicate that your child has growth retardation. 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 potential and space for growth, the more sensitive the child is to treatment, and the better the growth effect. Therefore, it is important not to wait until the later stages of development, such as after the age of 14 for girls and 16 for boys, when the epiphysis is close to closing and the growth potential is very small, and it is no longer possible to reach the ideal height. Sometimes we often encounter children who are already 16 or 17 years old when they come to the clinic, and when they are given a bone age film, the film shows that the bones are already closed, so there is little hope for growth. Parents are advised to measure their children’s height every 3 months, and if the growth rate is too slow, they need to see a doctor promptly. The best age to treat dwarfism is 3-12 years old, the older the starting age, the smaller the contribution to adult height and the higher the cost of treatment, the earlier the detection and the earlier the treatment, the more the child’s adult height can be maximized.