Regarding growth hormones, you'd ideally want to make the decision that your son would want as an adult. However, that's impossible to determine right now. The growth hormone route isn't easy, but it's certainly preferable to the leg lengthening surgery that some short people choose.

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??

The pediatrician is a lunatic if he/she wanted to stop development for a 5’1” girl. I wonder though if the PP meant that she was (much) shorter than 5’1” at 12 and ended up at 5’1” as an adult without delaying development.

Still crazy, but at least it makes a bit more sense as maybe the doctor was worried the girl would not reach 5’

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??

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

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”

That is nuts. At 12 and 5’1” she is in 68th percentile for height/age. She is 12. She will likely grow at least 2 more inches, period or not.

I’ve been drinking more alcohol for the past 5 days

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”

What was her height when she got her period? My 15 year old is done growing, I’m pretty sure. She’s 5’1” as well. Just curious how short your daughter was when the doctor said this.

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”

How tall are you and your husband? If your DD is 5’1” and has not gotten her period yet, she is likely to get to at least 5’3” which is my height and very average. I always wish I were a little taller, but my height has never been an issue for me. I always competed in sports (nit basketball obviously), never had confidence issues, etc.

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”

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."

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").

Extremely unlikely with an average size mom and short-ish father. He will be lucky to get to six feet. Maybe. "Tall male genes" besides the father's really don't matter.

What on earth are you talking about? 5’7 is well above average height for a woman (average is 5’4), and 5’10 is an average male height (not “short-ish”), actually it is an inch above average). And other family genes absolutely matter, not just the parents. You sound really ignorant. It sounds like PP’s son will be tall like she is, and others in her family. Makes perfect sense.

Anonymous wrote:For our not-on-the chart for weight, 2% height DD, did ped, endo, and nutritionist - did bloodwork, a bone scan, etc. Our DD is somewhat ADHD, heavy on the hyperactive and impulsivity and they ended up ruling everything out and just told us she needed to eat much more and more times a day. Has gained almost ten pounds in the last four months. Before we loaded up, she ate almost as much as her older sibling and didn't seem hungry, continuing up her own low growth curve, etc. so we didn't press the issue but are much more intentional now.

Damn

For our not-on-the chart for weight, 2% height DD, did ped, endo, and nutritionist - did bloodwork, a bone scan, etc. Our DD is somewhat ADHD, heavy on the hyperactive and impulsivity and they ended up ruling everything out and just told us she needed to eat much more and more times a day. Has gained almost ten pounds in the last four months. Before we loaded up, she ate almost as much as her older sibling and didn't seem hungry, continuing up her own low growth curve, etc. so we didn't press the issue but are much more intentional now.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP. I would be much more concerned, and thus probably more likely to dig deeper, if my son were going to be well below average height for a man than if my daughter were going to be well below average height for a woman. Being short is a bigger problem/hardship for men, and most parents like to protect their kids from hardship where they can. **shrug**

+1 does not sound fair, but I agree.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have tips to talk to your kid about going to the endocrinologist? Even if for a checkup or a diagnostic, I don’t want to make him feel badly or that something is *wrong*

Well a great way to make sure he has a harder time of it is to act like he has a deficiency that is 100% not his fault.