Human Growth Hormone Deficiency

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"it sends a message that she is sick and needs treatment"

- way better message than "there was something wrong with you, it would have been upsetting, and because we were worried about your self-esteem, we missed the opportunity to do anything about it."

Yeah, I don't really get this line of thinking either. "We were concerned about a possible issue and we explored all of our choices and made a decision."

My (now teen) son was followed by an endocrinologist for his growth for a few years. While he was included in discussions and nothing was a secret, ultimately as a parent it was my responsibility to make the decisions on how we proceeded. He didn't like being hauled to the doctor, he didn't think anything was "wrong", but I suspect down the line if he'd ended up being so short that it was a marked hindrance, he'd look back differently.

This isn't to say anyone should go one way or another in treatment, but I would take the "we don't want her to think she's sick" part out of the equation.

[Anonymous]

This is just the thread I need, I am in the same boat with DC.
Now 13 yr 3 months.
4.11 inches
Born 9 lbs, 22 inches full term, he was ahead in the curve until first 3 years, ever since his growth slowed down (He refused bottles and formula as a baby)
He is hypothyroid and using medication from a year, he gained an inch last year.
My Pedi or my endocrinologist have never discussed the things I read in this post.
They just explained that he will eventually gain height.
I am 5.7 and DH is 5.9.
I strongly want to do whatever I can to get him a chance to gain decent height.

Kids immediately look down on shorter kids. I have seen them engage in loose talk “ you are short and weak” etc.. this is just too common. I can imagine a great amount of self esteem issues stem from these interactions.

I certainly got some new information to talk to our Peds.

[Anonymous]

My son is 13 and shorter than yours PP. Never have I or his doctor expressed concern about him. He grows but he will be short.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just met with endocrinologist last week for 13 year old son. Parents tall and he was about 50% of height but has fallen to 19% and only grown 1.5 inches in 19 months. Typical at 13 1/2 is 2-3 inches a year. They ran test and only one hormone bit low. Bone age one year behind but Endot wants to read test hersel- results were from local doc and she is going to get X-ray.
Once bones fuse- no chance to help so we are fast tracking our decision based on that. If younger, think I would get couple opinions and have growth monitored over two 6 month periods- then endoc with X-ray and blood can give you predict asult height. If that is not reasonable based on genetics- say I’m 5”7 and husband 6’1 and kid shows max height 5”9, then yes, we would proceed.
We would not intervene unless we felt medically he was not meeting his expected height. For our son, biggest flag is lack of growth over 18 months. However, they base a lot of this on size of tedticles to determine where in puberty and our son at 1 on scale 1-5 so we feel like he is just late bloomer probably.
Again, doc is reviewing bone age again and if it is as immature as testes, then time will work. If bone age closer to actual age and blood work borderline, we will do an all day in lab blood testing that insurance requires - that will ultimately decide.
Good doc should make decision path very easy. We didn’t feel like there were that many variables at end of day to decide.

Our DS's endo would not give HGH for expected height of 5'9". And she told us that insurance won't pay for it for that height.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is 13 and shorter than yours PP. Never have I or his doctor expressed concern about him. He grows but he will be short.

Yes. Wtf?

My soon to be 13 year old is 4’12”. 5 feet. He doesn’t look smaller than others, mid-pack.

He hasn’t hit puberty yet.

Similar height to my brother’s at this age that all ended up between 6ft-6’1”. There are a lot of kids hitting growth spurts earlier than norm which is deluding your thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just the thread I need, I am in the same boat with DC.
Now 13 yr 3 months.
4.11 inches
Born 9 lbs, 22 inches full term, he was ahead in the curve until first 3 years, ever since his growth slowed down (He refused bottles and formula as a baby)
He is hypothyroid and using medication from a year, he gained an inch last year.
My Pedi or my endocrinologist have never discussed the things I read in this post.
They just explained that he will eventually gain height.
I am 5.7 and DH is 5.9.
I strongly want to do whatever I can to get him a chance to gain decent height.

Kids immediately look down on shorter kids. I have seen them engage in loose talk “ you are short and weak” etc.. this is just too common. I can imagine a great amount of self esteem issues stem from these interactions.

I certainly got some new information to talk to our Peds.

I think one of the keys with your DS is where he is in puberty. My DS is similar to yours, he was full-term, 8 1/2 lbs, and off the growth charts his first two years. Came back down to the 75th percentile in elementary school, then was 50% towards the end of elem. school. When he was 12 and had dropped even more, to the 15th or 20th percentile, and had hardly grown over the previous year, our pediatrician referred us to an endocrinologist. He did get a fair amount of teasing about his size. He took it in stride, but I also saw where his social status had changed as his peers had grown a foot taller than DS and were physically maturing, while DS still looked like a young boy.

Based on exam, family history, family heights, etc., the endocrinologist was pretty certain it was just delayed puberty. He ordered the bone x-ray series which showed DS was 18 months behind in bone growth than chronological age. The dr. treated DS conservatively, he didn't test hormones at all, just the bone x-ray and followed DS for two years. DS did start puberty about a year later than the average, and has hit pubertal stages and milestones at the same rate, about a year later than average. When we first started with the endocrinologist at age 12, he was 4' 9". Now at 14 1/2, he's grown to 5'5". The endo. expected his peak growth to come around age 15 to 15 1/2 (average peak height growth for males is 14).

I should add that I'm 5'3" and DH is 6'2". So where my kids end up is really a crap shoot!

You may want to ask your endocrinologist about a bone x-ray to determine where your DS is in bone age/growth. It would be helpful to have "oh he'll still grow" confirmed.

[Anonymous]

Not many experiences from parents of girls like OP’s. Why is that? Are fewer girls affected, or is it just less common to treat girls than boys?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not many experiences from parents of girls like OP’s. Why is that? Are fewer girls affected, or is it just less common to treat girls than boys?

I suspect the latter. Our culture is kinder to small girls than to small boys. For me, that raises the question of whether short stature is a “sickness” to be treated or a condition that some choose to treat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not many experiences from parents of girls like OP’s. Why is that? Are fewer girls affected, or is it just less common to treat girls than boys?

For my DS, his condition is due to a genetic mutation. Generally speaking, genetic mutations are more symptomatic in boys than in girls.

[Anonymous]

It's less common to treat girls. My DS is getting hormone therapy and his expected height without therapy would be 4'10. His cousin is full grown and she is 4'9 and they decided she was fine. 4'9 for a girl is just different than 4'10 for a girl.

[Anonymous]

OP, I don't know much about your child's condition, but we have dealt with other hormonal and growth related conditions with our DS. I first would recommend you get a few opinions. DS had premature puberty and the first doctor we saw wanted to treat with lupron immediately and predicted an adult height of 5'5-5'6. We got two other opinions, both who said it was not necessary treat and they predicted height of 5'8" - 5'10". He is 17 now and reached a height of 5'8". So glad we did not go with the first doctor's recommendation. FWIW, the first doctor was horrible. She is located at Shady Grove Hospital area. We had to go to Baltimore and to Children's Hospital to get the other two opinions. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just the thread I need, I am in the same boat with DC.
Now 13 yr 3 months.
4.11 inches
Born 9 lbs, 22 inches full term, he was ahead in the curve until first 3 years, ever since his growth slowed down (He refused bottles and formula as a baby)
He is hypothyroid and using medication from a year, he gained an inch last year.
My Pedi or my endocrinologist have never discussed the things I read in this post.
They just explained that he will eventually gain height.
I am 5.7 and DH is 5.9.
I strongly want to do whatever I can to get him a chance to gain decent height.

Kids immediately look down on shorter kids. I have seen them engage in loose talk “ you are short and weak” etc.. this is just too common. I can imagine a great amount of self esteem issues stem from these interactions.

I certainly got some new information to talk to our Peds.

What people need to worry about with boys is if they grow and develop early. My DS was taller than any of the boys in 5th grade and going into middle school. We didn't think anything about it until our pediatrician indicated he was early for puberty. Turns out he had premature puberty and could possibly end out with short stature. Boys with this condition grow too early, and then the growth plates close and they stop growing early. So he was taller than everyone in 8th grade, but come sophomore year in high school, he stopped growing and everyone else passed him. He is 5'8", which is not horrible. There are treatments for this if your kid has a smaller predicted height. We would have treated if they predicted less than 5'8". Turns out one doctor did predict 5'5" and wanted to treat, but we got other opinions and decided to let it be.

[Anonymous]

I have a short son who is 13 and probably around 4ft 10in or so. I am 5ft 4in and he comes up to just under my nose. He is predicted to be 5ft 6in or so. I cannot imagine injecting him with hormones to get another few inches. His doctor has never expressed any concern about his height. He has small parents so 5ft 6in sounds good to me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a short son who is 13 and probably around 4ft 10in or so. I am 5ft 4in and he comes up to just under my nose. He is predicted to be 5ft 6in or so. I cannot imagine injecting him with hormones to get another few inches. His doctor has never expressed any concern about his height. He has small parents so 5ft 6in sounds good to me!

Right and good for you, but as mentioned on about page 1 or 2 of this thread, HGH treatment isn't just to achieve a taller height. A lack of HGH can lead to a number of other issues.

But sometimes it *is* to achieve a taller height in addition to treating the other issues. 5'6" you can live well in the world. But some kids who have HGH deficiency are projected to be much shorter than that and it poses problems in the real world. Not insurmountable, but it can make life more difficult.

[Anonymous]

I think it helps to distinguish between giving HGH because you have an HGH deficiency and giving HGH because you're just short (idiopathic short stature).