What did you ped recommend for short stature?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. Will doctors give this kids who don't have any growth hormone deficiency and are just short, as in falling where it would be expected based on parents (which can be plus or minus)?

If you are average (5-4) and your husband says he's 5-8 and possibly is not quite 5-8 (no offense, but just typical), a son who is 5-4 is on the shorter side of what would be expected for your heights but still perfectly normal. Particularly if you look at extended family. Is your husband the tallest male in his family? It's more than just your heights.

I would think long and hard about giving my kid those shots.

My doctor said we should think about postponing my (short) 12 year old’s period so she has more time to grow. I declined. Shes 5’1”

You are a lunatic

She’s a lunatic for declining to postponing her child’s period??

A 12 year old girl? Yes! That's a normal age to get a period, maybe even a little behind the normal age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. Will doctors give this kids who don't have any growth hormone deficiency and are just short, as in falling where it would be expected based on parents (which can be plus or minus)?

If you are average (5-4) and your husband says he's 5-8 and possibly is not quite 5-8 (no offense, but just typical), a son who is 5-4 is on the shorter side of what would be expected for your heights but still perfectly normal. Particularly if you look at extended family. Is your husband the tallest male in his family? It's more than just your heights.

I would think long and hard about giving my kid those shots.

Short answer is yes, if you shop around enough, you will find a ped endocrinologist who will rx growth hormone. But it's not as simple as giving a shot.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/well/live/growth-hormones-short-children-height.html

If you don't want to read the article, the excerpt of note is below

"In JAMA Pediatrics in December, pediatric endocrinologists from Karolinska University Hospital reported that among 3,408 patients who were treated with recombinant growth hormone as children and adolescents and followed for up to 25 years, the risk of developing a cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke was two-thirds higher for men and twice as high for women than among 50,036 untreated but otherwise similar people.

The Swedish finding follows a report last June from a research team in Tokyo that growth hormone promotes biomedical pathways that stimulate the development of atherosclerosis, the basis for most cardiovascular events."

+1

There are significant known long term side effects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did this go? We’re there now with our son. My husband is very defensive about it all.

Your DH should have sympathy, being 5’4” is really going to be hard. If I had sons I would be all over this with endo. Our DD will be short but less consequence -5’5” DH.

I know a lot of shorter men. I’m 5’5” at some are my height. All successful high level careers, beautiful wives (that is some cases are their height or taller), kids. Height isn’t a problem if you have other good qualities; intelligence, humor, kindness, and have the work ethic to succeed.

+1

Also, how tall is your family, and your DH's family, OP??

That is the first question an endo will ask you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. Will doctors give this kids who don't have any growth hormone deficiency and are just short, as in falling where it would be expected based on parents (which can be plus or minus)?

If you are average (5-4) and your husband says he's 5-8 and possibly is not quite 5-8 (no offense, but just typical), a son who is 5-4 is on the shorter side of what would be expected for your heights but still perfectly normal. Particularly if you look at extended family. Is your husband the tallest male in his family? It's more than just your heights.

I would think long and hard about giving my kid those shots.

My doctor said we should think about postponing my (short) 12 year old’s period so she has more time to grow. I declined. Shes 5’1”

You are a lunatic

She’s a lunatic for declining to postponing her child’s period??

A 12 year old girl? Yes! That's a normal age to get a period, maybe even a little behind the normal age.

I think you’re misunderstanding what PP said. Her doctor wanted her to postpone her daughter’s period…presumably with hormones…in order to let her daughter grow more. PP declined to do so…declined to give her kid hormones, and she instead let nature take its course, which meant her short daughter got her period when nature intended and remain short. The only one who’s a lunatic is the doctor for for that suggestion, not the mom who didn’t want to give her kid hormones/medication.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. Will doctors give this kids who don't have any growth hormone deficiency and are just short, as in falling where it would be expected based on parents (which can be plus or minus)?

If you are average (5-4) and your husband says he's 5-8 and possibly is not quite 5-8 (no offense, but just typical), a son who is 5-4 is on the shorter side of what would be expected for your heights but still perfectly normal. Particularly if you look at extended family. Is your husband the tallest male in his family? It's more than just your heights.

I would think long and hard about giving my kid those shots.

My doctor said we should think about postponing my (short) 12 year old’s period so she has more time to grow. I declined. Shes 5’1”

You are a lunatic

She’s a lunatic for declining to postponing her child’s period??

A 12 year old girl? Yes! That's a normal age to get a period, maybe even a little behind the normal age.

I think you’re misunderstanding what PP said. Her doctor wanted her to postpone her daughter’s period…presumably with hormones…in order to let her daughter grow more. PP declined to do so…declined to give her kid hormones, and she instead let nature take its course, which meant her short daughter got her period when nature intended and remain short. The only one who’s a lunatic is the doctor for for that suggestion, not the mom who didn’t want to give her kid hormones/medication.

+1. Please read. The PP was not even confusing. She flat-out said, "I declined."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is 8 in and in the 2nd percentile for height. When he was 3ish we had him do a round of testing (bone scan, etc.), because he had fallen off his curve from when he was 1-2, but everything came back normal and he's since stayed on his curve. We have a pretty laid back pediatrician, so she hasn't recommended going to an endocrinologist, growth hormone, etc. but I wanted to see if that's the norm? Online calculators usually show him projected to be 5' 4" ish eventually, which I think we can all agree culturally isn't the easiest thing, but just wanted to hear from other parents who BTDT what was recommended to them. FWIW mom is average height and Dad is on the short side but 5' 8".

Go see an endocrino and check if they recommend more tests. Our ped was also very laid back and turns DD had a growth hormone deficiency that was not picked up by basic tests

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old is short...5th percentile. I am 5'1, husband is 5'8. Our other two kids are holding onto the 50th percentile, probably b/c we each have a random tall relative. Nobody suggested an endocrinologist. Being short is tough for men. Sure there are successful short men but its a tough place for a guy IMO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 5 year old is short...5th percentile. I am 5'1, husband is 5'8. Our other two kids are holding onto the 50th percentile, probably b/c we each have a random tall relative. Nobody suggested an endocrinologist. Being short is tough for men. Sure there are successful short men but its a tough place for a guy IMO

+1. It's very hard for a guy and OP should bring her kid to an endo. She just shouldn't expect that the endo will pump her kid full of hormones that could harm him so he can grow an extra inch or two. She's a woman of average height who married a man whose height is below average...and now there kid is below average...nothing surprising about the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone has to be the 3%.

It doesn’t mean anything is wrong. There are posts at least weekly here about a mom wondering why her son is so short and what endocrinologist to see. The vast majority
of short kids don’t have a medical problem.

Good luck ruling things out, but don’t be at all surprised if there is nothing wrong.

Exactly. He is no different than the kid who is in the 98th percentile except that we treat them as if they are different. They are simply opposite ends of the distribution.

+1 99th percentile adult with 99th percentile partner and 99th percentile child .... someone has to fill out both sides of a distribution! Doesn't mean there is a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you do this for a girl?

I have 5'7" (asian female so pretty tall for my gene pool) and DH is 5'10" (normal size white guy). My oldest daughter is probably going to be barely eke out to 5'4" (she will most likely take after my husbands mother and sister), whereas my youngest son is in the 99th percentile and will probably be well over 6' tall (he is still young but we both have a lot of tall male genes in our family with one uncle being 6'4" and my brother being 6'1").

No way would I give a 5’4” girl growth hormones! That’s average height for a woman, not super short. I’m also Asian, 5’3”, with a teenage daughter who is 5’1”.

I think the point is with the same set of variables, people aren't doing this for girls.

+ 1

similarly, would you give your daughter hormone blockers to prevent her from reaching 6 foot?
this whole thread feels like GATTACA and trying for designer babies, blech. Trying to control our genetics

[Anonymous]

Medical interventions should only be done for medical reasons and not for aesthetics ones. If OP’s son has a deficiency, the doctor will recommend treatment. If he does not, the doctor won’t (I hope).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Medical interventions should only be done for medical reasons and not for aesthetics ones. If OP’s son has a deficiency, the doctor will recommend treatment. If he does not, the doctor won’t (I hope).

agreed. but the problem is that there clearly are doctors that are willing to fudge the lines between medical reasons and aesthetical reasons ... hence the previous conversation about "doctor shopping"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Medical interventions should only be done for medical reasons and not for aesthetics ones. If OP’s son has a deficiency, the doctor will recommend treatment. If he does not, the doctor won’t (I hope).

Yeah, unless there’s a medical problem (which it obviously makes sense to rule out) the problem here is cultural. Much better for families of short boys to instill confidence than to act like something is wrong with being short. I know guys under 5’4” who are wealthy, happy, and successful by any measure. Yes, I have seen the statistics about height and earning power, but that isn’t destiny and hopefully as cultural attitudes shift it won’t matter so much.

[Anonymous]

For people who have had the endo prescribe
growth hormones, how long has the monitoring gone on before the doctor prescribed them? What does it take to show they are necessary?

[Anonymous]

Someone has to be toward the bottom of the height/weight charts. Also, puberty sometimes flips the script somewhat- not at all uncommon.

My DD was tiny from birth to age 11 or so. Consistently 20th% for height, barely on the charts for weight. We assumed she would be quite short but she is now 15 and 5’6”. She just grew and grew from ages 11-15. DH and I are 6’0” and 5’6” so she ended up around average-ish like us, despite being so small as a kid. Late puberty. Still extremely thin, though.

Have also seen a lot of kids who were always tall, and then just kind of stopped growing by middle school (ending up average to short-ish).