Before you give your kids any growth pills, vitamins (that sometimes doesn’t work), or growth hormone therapy, it’s best to understand our body function that is responsible for our growth. A Simple Way to Understand Your Child’s Height Growth
The pituitary gland is as big as a pea. Located beneath the brain and lies above the root of the mouth. It secretes human growth hormone (HGH) that is made up of 191 building blocks called amino acids essential for the normal growth and development of a child to an adult. A child who has deficiency of this hormone will never reach their full growth potential. Adults also produce GH, and the hormone continues to play an important regulatory role throughout our lives. A deficiency throughout adulthood can also be very serious. Adults require an appropriate level of GH for the correct regulation of body fat to muscle, metabolic processes and cholesterol regulation.
A child height growth increases with the supply of human growth factor as long as the growth plates are still open. Growth plates are the softer parts of the child’s bones. Where growth occurs and it is the weakest sections of the skeleton – sometimes even weaker than surrounding ligaments and tendons. It is so fragile that an injury that would result in a joint sprain for an adult will likely cause growth plate fracture in your child. Growth plate determines the future height growth of a child and the shape of the mature bone. Once the growth is complete, sometimes during adolescence, the growth plates closes they replaced by solid bone.
To monitor your child growth development, ask your child pediatrician to show you your child growth chart. Through this you can see if your child is still growing or not. And the only way to tell for sure is to have an x-ray done to see the status of her growth plates.
The height growth of a child is based on a number of different factors including genetic factors such as ethnic background and parents’ heights, nutritional factors, and chronic health problems.
Some parents are often worried by the delayed height growth or short stature of their children. Sometimes a child may have what is known as constitutional delay. Where they grow at a slower pace compared to peers their age and the variation in the timing of growth. But they catch up later on. There are many factors involve in the delayed growth or short stature of a child. It could be problems in the endocrine system (growth factors, hormonal factors). Or problems with the skeletal system, genetic abnormalities, etc, that are the cause of slow growth.
For your peace of mind, it is best to have your child be evaluate for growth problems by a Pediatrician. The Pediatrician could determine as to whether your child was small at birth or within normal ranges. Or his growth was along the curve but has slowed down. Or you could have your child be evaluate by a Pediatric Endocrinologist that specializes in the growth problems.
Never try growth hormone therapy or any other method/treatment until you have your child evaluated as to the cause of his slow growth. Remember that different diagnoses are treate differently.