Delayed puberty and growth hormone injections

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was very late to hit puberty and didn’t hit his growth spurt until 16. (His voice also didn’t change until then and he didn’t grow under arm or leg hair until then, either.)

Until about age 12 he always was on the tall side and then was significantly shorter than everyone else as most of the other boys were in the throes of puberty. I went to the ped with our concerns and she assured me he was a late bloomer.

He’s now 18 and 6’5” tall (and still growing it seems) and has committed to a D1 school to play a sport next fall.

Can I ask what sport, and how he managed to hang in there during the tiny years? My oldest was a very late bloomer and had to switch to track and cross country in HS- no way was he making any cut sports teams at his size (after playing club basketball and travel baseball for years). Ended up 6’2”. My younger DS is now 14 and is blooming “on time” but his smaller friends all started getting benched and/or cut last year (soccer and baseball). I really feel for them.

He is playing football in college if you can believe it- He’s always been a 3 sport athlete (soccer in the fall until freshman year) and goes to a private school (not one of the all boys ones) so there are definitely more opportunities. He played travel/club through 8th, but since then only has played for his school.

When they ask, my advice to friends with younger kids is to have their kid(s) play as many sports as possible as long as possible especially at the rec level. Rec sports are awesome. Avoid specializing in one sport too early at all costs. This was the first year my son didn’t play basketball and baseball and that’s only because he was so behind as far as strength goes. We didn’t want him lifting until he was done most of his growing. He spent the winter/spring lifting and working on skills specific to football. This year he’ll likely play basketball and baseball since he’s committed.

Also, the grass is brown everywhere when it comes to travel/club- so many politics. I’ve seen really talented kids get cut in lots of sports.

I also believe that travel/club sports have, in many ways, ruined sports for kids and all they are is a big money grab. Probably not popular opinion in these parts, but looking back at my kids’ experiences I can say that with full confidence.

Football is a sport that players really don’t do travel sports or club sports. And football takes more skill than most people understand. Why would he risk injury by playing basketball when he’s been recruited to a D1 school? It’s not worth it.

Correct about football. Before he was in high school and started playing football as a freshman he played travel/club in his other sports.

He loves basketball and he wants to be with his friends-

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was very late to hit puberty and didn’t hit his growth spurt until 16. (His voice also didn’t change until then and he didn’t grow under arm or leg hair until then, either.)

Until about age 12 he always was on the tall side and then was significantly shorter than everyone else as most of the other boys were in the throes of puberty. I went to the ped with our concerns and she assured me he was a late bloomer.

He’s now 18 and 6’5” tall (and still growing it seems) and has committed to a D1 school to play a sport next fall.

Can I ask what sport, and how he managed to hang in there during the tiny years? My oldest was a very late bloomer and had to switch to track and cross country in HS- no way was he making any cut sports teams at his size (after playing club basketball and travel baseball for years). Ended up 6’2”. My younger DS is now 14 and is blooming “on time” but his smaller friends all started getting benched and/or cut last year (soccer and baseball). I really feel for them.

NP here. I have a 14 year old baseball player and he's played teams that are just enormous. His team has a very wide range of sizes- a few are around 5'10" while two are under 5'. Always wondered if coaches are weeding out players based on height or if tall kids self-select for those teams.

I think the top tier teams tend to have all enormous kids, while lower teams have a wider range.

My own 14yo plays for an organization with both an A and B team (my kid is on the B team). On the B team, kids range from 5’0-6’0” and from probably 90lbs-200lbs. On the A team- the smallest kid is 5’6”-5’7” and 130lbs-ish. The tiniest kids will struggle to get much playing time even on the B team.

We were told by the coaches that physical maturity was a factor (but definitely not the only factor) in team placement. My kid is tallish but skinny. I think size is a factor for most teams but not all are open about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was very late to hit puberty and didn’t hit his growth spurt until 16. (His voice also didn’t change until then and he didn’t grow under arm or leg hair until then, either.)

Until about age 12 he always was on the tall side and then was significantly shorter than everyone else as most of the other boys were in the throes of puberty. I went to the ped with our concerns and she assured me he was a late bloomer.

He’s now 18 and 6’5” tall (and still growing it seems) and has committed to a D1 school to play a sport next fall.

Can I ask what sport, and how he managed to hang in there during the tiny years? My oldest was a very late bloomer and had to switch to track and cross country in HS- no way was he making any cut sports teams at his size (after playing club basketball and travel baseball for years). Ended up 6’2”. My younger DS is now 14 and is blooming “on time” but his smaller friends all started getting benched and/or cut last year (soccer and baseball). I really feel for them.

NP here. I have a 14 year old baseball player and he's played teams that are just enormous. His team has a very wide range of sizes- a few are around 5'10" while two are under 5'. Always wondered if coaches are weeding out players based on height or if tall kids self-select for those teams.

I think the top tier teams tend to have all enormous kids, while lower teams have a wider range.

My own 14yo plays for an organization with both an A and B team (my kid is on the B team). On the B team, kids range from 5’0-6’0” and from probably 90lbs-200lbs. On the A team- the smallest kid is 5’6”-5’7” and 130lbs-ish. The tiniest kids will struggle to get much playing time even on the B team.

We were told by the coaches that physical maturity was a factor (but definitely not the only factor) in team placement. My kid is tallish but skinny. I think size is a factor for most teams but not all are open about it.

PP here. Our coach said jokingly, you can be big and slow, or small and fast, but the worst is small and slow. My own kid is close to 5'11" and 150lbs but he's really slow and not strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adding to this thread- i have a 14 y.o. son w/ Constitutional Growth delay. Not even close to 5 feet tall yet. His 11 y.o. sister is taller than him. He will be starting 1x/wk testosterone injections for 12 weeks shortly. Wondering how soon he can expect to see growth spurt, or any growth at all. I am 5’5” and dad is 5’11”. He is doing freshman soccer and is so much smaller than everyone. It is very hard on him. Hoping he can grow significantly for next year.

Did he go through all the testing for a growth hormone deficiency? His 11 year old sister being taller than him would be a huge red flag for me. My son was diagnosed with GHD at 14.5 and treatment has made a huge difference.