Many disorders can cause short stature, including achondroplasia, hormone deficiency, delayed puberty, Cushing's disease, malnutrition, malabsorption disorders, such as celiac disease, and others. A child must be examined by a health care provider if short stature is suspected or present.
Growth problems can be caused by a number of factors, including genetics, hormonal disorders, systemic illnesses, and poor absorption of food. Causes of growth problems usually fall into the following categories: familial short stature, a tendency to follow the family's inherited short stature (shortness)
The most common causes of short stature beyond the first year or two of life are familial (genetic) short stature and delayed (constitutional) growth, which are normal, nonpathologic variants of growth.
Endocrine disorder: The major medical cause of short stature is growth hormone deficiency (GHD).
Constitutional delay in growth and puberty (A child is short during most of childhood but will have late onset of puberty and end up in the typical height range as an adult because the child will have more time to grow.)
The main factor that influences a person's height is their genetic makeup, or DNA. However, many other factors can influence height during development, including nutrition, hormones, and medical conditions. Scientists believe that DNA is responsible for about 80% of a person's height.
Treatment for Growth Hormone Deficiency
If it's determined that growth hormone deficiency is the cause of a child's short stature than the child can be treated with growth hormone therapy, which is given by injections 6-7 days a week. A big misconception is that growth hormones can make any child taller.
Causes of faltering growth
Postnatal factors, such as nutritional or environmental problems, endocrinopathy or chronic disease may affect growth. In toddlers, growth failure is often the result of inadequate caloric intake but may also be the first sign of disease in an otherwise asymptomatic child.
Though short stature can manifest in early infancy or at any point in childhood, it's generally noticed as puberty begins – at about 10 years old for girls and 11 years old for boys.
Hypochondroplasia is a mild form of achondroplasia. It may be difficult to differentiate between familial short stature and achondroplasia. Achondroplasia and hypochondroplasia result from a genetic mutation. Genetic conditions, such as Turner syndrome, Down syndrome, or Prader Willi syndrome, are also linked to DSS.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, short stature means an estimated final height below 5 feet 3 inches for boys or 4 feet 11 inches for girls.
Taking care of himself — eating well, exercising regularly, and getting plenty of rest — is the best way for your son to help his body reach its natural potential. No pill, formula, or nutritional supplement can increase someone's height. Mostly, our genes determine how tall we will be.
Scientists aren't sure exactly why, but people who are shorter than 5 feet 3 inches are about 50% more likely to get coronary heart disease than those who are 5 feet 8 inches or taller. The reason may be poor nutrition or infections before birth or in childhood that affect growth.
When you have too much growth hormone, your bones increase in size. In childhood, this leads to increased height and is called gigantism. But in adulthood, a change in height doesn't occur. Instead, the increase in bone size is limited to the bones of your hands, feet and face, and is called acromegaly.
“They eventually catch up and reach a normal adult height. They're the kid that goes away over the summer of grade 11 and comes back a foot taller," says Heard.
Stunting is largely irreversible: a child cannot recover height in the same way that they can regain weight. Stunted children fall sick more often, miss opportunities to learn, perform less well in school and grow up to be economically disadvantaged, and more likely to suffer from chronic diseases.
A combination of genetics and external factors can affect how tall a child will grow. Health experts believe that 80% of a person's height is genetic. This means the height of biological parents can be an indicator of a child's height, although this is not always a reliable predictor.
With a change in environment, through adoption, emigration or with treatment of the disease there is usually definite catch-up growth, although it is often not to the NCHS standards. If puberty is delayed and/or growth continues into the early or mid twenties, then an acceptable final adult height is achieved.
Height is largely due to genetics. Once a person reaches adulthood and stops growing, eating certain foods will not make them any taller. During years of growth and development, however, good nutrition can help a person reach their full height and support their body in growing and developing healthily.
Tall parents have short children because the traits are controlled by alleles of a particular gene. Alleles are variant forms of a gene present on homologous chromosomes and the parents are heterozygous for the height phenotype.
If you are a man with average height, you can expect your son to be a few inches (centimeters) taller than you. This is because the regression line and the SD line both coincide at the average heights. For instance, a father with an average height of 67.7 inches (172cm) will have a 68.7-inch-tall (175cm-tall) son.