Why don’t children grow taller even though they are well-nourished? Why can a child be short even if the parents are tall? Is height determined by genetics? Modern medical research has proven that heredity only accounts for 1/3 of the factors that determine height, and that short stature is essentially a treatable disease that must be taken seriously by parents! Why are many children’s height unintentionally delayed by their parents? The survey found that 97% of parents of children with short stature recognized that their children were short, but only 1.6% of parents realized that it might be caused by certain diseases.
Parents who do not know enough about the disease and lack basic knowledge (such as the average height of each age group and the cause of the disease) account for 41.9%, do not think that shortness is a disease, mistakenly believe that the child grows late and will grow taller in the future account for 32.3%, know that treatment, but the cost of drugs is too high to afford 29%; believe in calcium supplementation, height increase advertising, buy height or health care drugs for children account for 16.1%; do not pay attention to the child’s height. The percentage of parents who did not give their children regular medical checkups was 12.9%; the percentage of parents who did not know the average height of their children’s age group was 56.9%.
Nearly half of the parents interviewed attributed their children’s short stature to “late development” and “picky and partial eating”. They took measures to increase nutrition, physical exercise, vitamin supplements and height-enhancing supplements, etc. More than 20% of parents did not take any measures to deal with their children’s short stature. Most of the parents did not think it was necessary to take their children to the hospital for examination to determine the cause of their short height.
At the same time, a nationwide survey of children with growth hormone deficiency showed that 46.4% of children with growth hormone deficiency and 27.0% of children with idiopathic dwarfism were seen. These children can be treated effectively with drugs such as recombinant human growth hormone.
Dwarfism is a disease whose main cause is the lack of growth hormone in the body. According to Xu Haiqing, a leading expert in the field of pediatric health care in China, genetics only accounts for one-third of the factors that determine height, while environmental conditions account for two-thirds. In terms of current medical technology, short stature caused by genetic factors can be treated if interventions are taken at the right time.
The first disease that affects height is short stature caused by growth hormone deficiency or insufficient secretion. If this type of disease is not treated early, the child’s final height as an adult may only be about 1.30 meters, i.e. dwarfism; secondly, precocious puberty, hypothyroidism, abnormal adrenocortical function, idiopathic dwarfism, as well as less than fetal age children, abnormal bone development and other diseases can cause short stature.
The problem of dwarfism is not terrible, as long as we pay attention to it and pay attention to it, regular physical examination, early detection and early diagnosis; do not seek medical help blindly, but should go to the regular hospital dwarfism clinic.