8 m.o. over 99th%ile on growth curve- what will endocrinologist do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard of such thing and mine have always been huge. They are 6'3 now. Are there any other health problems?

I’m OP. No, the baby has been totally healthy- he’s not crawling yet, and he was a little slower to roll over, but I would think because of his size. No gestational diabetes either, and he was 8.5 lbs at birth so not a world record, but I was induced at 39 weeks. I do suspect he is just going to be a big guy.

SO how big is he right now? My 99th percentile 2 year old was born at 38 weeks (spontaneous) and weighed 8 pounds 12 oz. He is now 2 and weighs 38 pounds and is 37" tall. So big. But I never thought to take him to an endo! Nor has my pediatrician said anything. DH and I are relatively normal size (5'10" and 5'7" respectively).

But OP mentioned her baby is increasing on the growth curve- so not just staying at 95% but going to higher percentiles for height and weight as he gets older. That could indicate a pituitary issue or a growth hormone issue. I don't get all the defensive responses here about switching doctors. The doctor is literally doing her job- sees something that could be outside the norm, refers for more screening (which will hopefully all be normal), and then that's it. Would you rather the pediatrician not even screen for potential issues?

I don't get it either. The endo also has better knowledge about what testing might need to be done, so I don't even see why anyone thinks it's odd to refer before testing in some cases.

Nope. Basic screening labs should be common knowledge to a general practitioner or easily looked up. No need for endo based off of OPs account of facts. Referrals like this are what make wait times unreasonable.

[Anonymous]

I think some pediatricians are just more likely to recommend extra testing as a precaution than others. My oldest was 10th percentile when he was born, and then climbed into the 99th by 4 months. I remember 7-9 months was peak chunk, since he hadn’t started crawling yet. His ped never showed concern, and DH and I are pretty average height. He skimmed down once he could crawl/walk, but he stayed really solid. He is 6 now and still 99th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some pediatricians are just more likely to recommend extra testing as a precaution than others. My oldest was 10th percentile when he was born, and then climbed into the 99th by 4 months. I remember 7-9 months was peak chunk, since he hadn’t started crawling yet. His ped never showed concern, and DH and I are pretty average height. He skimmed down once he could crawl/walk, but he stayed really solid. He is 6 now and still 99th.

This isn’t the same thing but my kid had/has a massive head. So far off the chart. Absolutely no other issues indicating a problem. My pediatrician hemmed and hawed every visit for the first 6 months and finally said it is almost definitely nothing but just do the scan so we can stop talking about it. So we did it and everything was fine. But I appreciated the philosophy of something is a little different, let’s just see. I would not have agreed to anything invasive but you can object if something more serious is ordered. Unless all these other PP are pediatricians I think you can ignore them. Everything is very likely fine but it’s good to be careful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My pediatrician made a referral for my son to see an endocrinologist just as a precaution. He’s consistently been at the 98-99th %ile for length and weight since he was about 1 month old, but he went through another little growth spurt since 6 months so she wanted to make a referral just to get things checked out. She was expecting him to level off a little and he hasn’t. He seems normal and healthy, but definitely very big. Like he wears 2T. I see people going to the pediatric endocrinologist for falling off the growth curve but not for skyrocketing above it- any feedback on what to expect, what to ask?

No clue why your ped would do that. It really doesn't matter where they are on the chart % wise. They are looking for changes in the percentages. So if he was 99% and then dropped to 50% that could be something to watch. Or the other way around where they shoot up. Sending an 8 month old for additional testing from an endocrinologist because he is consistently at the same % is strange.

It’s almost like we’re not doctors.

[Anonymous]

My kid was 30lbs at 6 months. Now tall and skinny. I'm grateful that my pediatrician talked me down from need to test.

Please ignore the "abnormal" comment.