Recently, we have received many inquiries from parents about how old their children are, how tall they are currently, and how much shorter they are than children of the same age, asking what to do next. Today we will introduce how to treat children once they are found to be short. More than 70% of parents do not know enough about dwarfism and do not think that dwarfism is a disease, so they wait blindly after discovering that their children are short and hold on to the wrong concept of “late development” and “twenty-three scurrying”, thus missing the best treatment period for their children and seriously affecting their growth and development. The best treatment period for children is missed, which seriously affects the growth and development of children. The earlier you intervene, the greater the likelihood that your child will grow taller. As long as the treatment is timely, children can generally reach their genetic height. Dwarfism affects more than just a child’s height. Children with dwarfism have varying degrees of psychological disorders such as low self-esteem and depression, and their deficiencies in stature directly affect their education, employment and marriage. Self-test: How to determine if your child is short Parents can determine if their child is short with the help of two simple methods: 1. The child’s head is always shorter than the children in the same class by more than half a head, and is always in the first few in line; 2. If a child meets one of these points, parents should pay attention and take the child to a regular hospital to seek professional medical intervention. Treatment: Once the epiphysis is closed, the child cannot grow taller. The causes of short stature in children mainly include two aspects: one is disease-related short stature, such as those caused by malnutrition, growth hormone deficiency, hypothyroidism, congenital ovarian hypoplasia, etc.; the other is non-disease short stature, such as familial hereditary short stature and somatic growth retardation. Most of the non-disease dwarfism does not need treatment, while disease dwarfism should be treated before it is too late, like hypothyroidism, renal tubular acidosis, chronic renal failure, etc., as long as the child’s disease is corrected. Most of the other cases are caused by growth hormone deficiency, and the earlier the treatment, the better the results. The dose of medication for children with dwarfism is proportional to their weight, and the earlier the age, the better the results and the less money they spend. A child with a weight of 15kg costs 10-20,000 RMB a year, while a child with a weight of 40kg costs 30-60,000 RMB a year, and the effect is not as good as the former. The fact is that domestic patients with dwarfism generally receive treatment late, with 70% of the age group being 10 to 13 years old. In contrast, the average age of treatment for dwarf patients abroad is 6 years old. The older the age, the shorter the growth period and the less likely it is to reach genetic height, while early treatment can maximize the adult height of the affected child. Generally speaking, when the bone age of girls exceeds 14 years old and boys exceed 16 years old, their epiphyses are close to closing and there is basically no chance of growing taller. Over the years, we often come across such children in the clinic, and when they come to the clinic, the bone age film shows that the epiphysis is already closed. As a doctor, I am very distressed. Reminder: Don’t believe in “one-shot” drugs I would like to remind parents: Don’t be eager to seek medical help and blindly choose height-enhancing products for your child, there are no ‘one-shot’ drugs in the world, and those commercially available height-enhancing products often have unclear ingredients and are potentially dangerous. The potential dangers of those commercially available height enhancement products are often unclear, and may contain sex hormone-like substances that can accelerate the growth of your child’s bone age. In addition, you should not blindly supplement your child with nutrients because they do not have the basis to directly promote growth, and blind supplementation will not only not help your child grow taller, but may stimulate the epiphysis to close early, killing your child’s chances of growing taller.