Growth delay occurs when your child is not growing normally for his or her age. Growth delays occur due to inherent health issues like hyperthyroidism or growth hormone deficiency. In most cases, early diagnosis and treatment can help your child attain age-appropriate height.
If you feel that your child’s height is not developing normally, have your doctor carry out tests to check for underlying medical issues. It could be an indication that your child has health issues that need medical attention.
Symptoms of delayed growth in children
Except for a few, kids generally have the same height at a certain age. However, if your child seems smaller than his peers, chances are there is a growth problem. For instance, if your child appears smaller than 95 percent of kids of the same age, then this is considered health issues.
A child may also be diagnosed with health issues if he or she has normal height but whose growth rate is slower than normal. Based on the cause, your child may show a range of symptoms including dwarfism. A child with dwarfism will have has limbs that are not proportionate to the torso.
If a child has a low level of the hormone thyroxine, he or she might experience low energy levels, dry skin, constipation, and have difficulty keeping warm.
A child may also have issues such as low concentration of growth hormone. This will cause your child to appear abnormally small. If slow growth is because of issues like bowel or stomach disease, your child might have traces of blood in the stool, might experience diarrhea, constipation, nausea and even vomiting.
Common causes of delayed growth in children
Delay growth is caused by a number of factors. Some of the common causes include family history, constitutional delay, deficiency in the growth hormone, hyperthyroidism and Turner syndrome.
Family history
If one or both parents are short in height, it possible for the child to inherit this trait. The child will develop at a slower pace that other of a similar age. Note that delayed development due to the presence of short stature in the family does not indicate that the child has underlying health problems. Your child may be shorter than peers because he or she took after the parents.
Constitutional delayed growth
A child with constitutional delayed growth is shorter than others, but growth takes place at a normal rate. Such a child has bones that grow at a very slow rate than is typical at that age. Such a child will reach puberty quite late. This will cause lower than average height during early teenage. However, your child will catch up with peers during adulthood.
Deficiency in growth hormone
Typically, growth hormones cause body tissues to growth at a normal rate. A child with incomplete or partial growth hormones will not grow at a normal rate.
Hyperthyroidism
Children or babies who suffer from hyperthyroidism have poorly performing thyroid glands. The thyroid is the gland that secretes the hormone that causes normal growth in your child. So, poor or delayed growth might be an indication that your child’s thyroid gland is not working properly.
Turner syndrome
Turner syndrome affects females who have an incomplete x chromosome. This condition affects about 1 in every 2500 female children. Although a child with this condition may have adequate amounts of the growth hormone, the body does not make use of it properly.
Diagnosis
Your doctor will want a detailed history of your family. The doctor will also gather detailed data on your child history including birth parent’s pregnancy, the child’s weight and height, the height of other members of the family as well as information on other people in your family who experienced delayed growth at some point. The doctor will also chart the child’s development for a period of six months.
Treatment for delayed growth
Treatment for this condition depends on the underlying cause. If delayed growth is linked to constitutional growth, the doctor will prescribe a range of treatments. For instance, the doctor might recommend growth hormone therapy to rejuvenate growth in your child.
Your doctor might recommend that you buy HGH for your child. This treatment is meant to address growth caused by a deficiency in growth hormone. There are plenty of license clinics where you can buy HGH. The doctor might also know a few places where you can buy HGH, so HGH is very easy to find.
The Bottom Line
Timely treatment is one way to help your child achieve normal growth. Immediately you notice that your child’s growth is not normal, speak with your doctor. Whether an intervention is possible or not, getting to the root cause of your child’s slow growth will allow you to decide what to do. For instance, you might want your child to have a session with a psychiatrist to address psychological issues that your child might experience due to height or poor growth.
Sources:
https://www.emedicinehealth.com/growth_failure_in_children/article_em.htm
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/growth-disorder.html
https://childrensnational.org/visit/Conditions-and-Treatments/Stomach-Digestion-GI/Growth-disorders
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/puberty/Pages/Delayed-Puberty.aspx
https://www.who.int/nutrition/healthygrowthproj_stunted_videos/en/
