IS MY CHILDS AVERAGE HEIGHT NORMAL AND ARE THEY GROWING AT A NORMAL RATE?
What can I do about it and can the doctor help me with my growth?Common Question #2: What will the doctor do? Because short stature is most often just a matter of genetics, your child's pediatrician will want to get a thorough family history from you, including the approximate height of his siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. She'll want to know if anyone in the family has had a health problem associated with short stature since these can also be inherited. You'll need to provide her with his height and weight records, if she doesn't have them already, so she can figure out whether his growth has slowed recently and if he's always been shorter than his peers. She'll ask if he's showing any signs of puberty and, if so, at what age puberty began. She'll probably give him a physical exam as well, possibly weighing and measuring his arms and legs separately. He may also need X-rays or other lab tests. If the doctor suspects a hormone problem, she'll refer him to a pediatric endocrinologist. If tests indicate a growth hormone the doctor will probably recommend a "stimulation test." This involves injecting your child with a drug that causes his endocrine system to produce growth hormone. Then she'll draw a few blood samples at timed intervals and analyze them to figure out whether or not your child produces normal levels of the hormone. Having a deficiency can signal any one of a variety of serious diseases that include much more serious complications, so further testing may be necessary. One great way to ensure proper growth nutrition is to eat a well balance diet, maintain a healthy drug free lifestyle (this means you and your child), and supplement one's diet with the popular natural growth stimulation supplement Growth Booster Plus™. Learn more below about this option. Copyright Sharp Labs Inc.™, U.S.A. "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" |