Lately, it seems as though your child is looking up to classmates — literally.
The other kids in the class have been getting taller and developing into young adults,
but your child's growth seems to be lagging behind. Classmates now tower over your
child.
Is something wrong? Maybe, maybe not. Some kids just grow more slowly than others
because their parents did, too. But others may have an actual growth disorder, which
is any type of problem that prevents kids from meeting realistic expectations of growth, from failure
to gain height and weight in young children to short stature or delayed sexual development
in teens.
Variations of Normal Growth Patterns
A couple of differences seen in the growth patterns of normal children include
these common conditions, which are not growth disorders:
Constitutional growth delay: This condition describes children
who are small for their ages but who are growing at a normal rate. They usually have
a delayed "bone age," which means that their skeletal maturation is younger than their
age in years. (Bone age is measured by taking an X-ray of the hand and wrist and comparing
it with standard X-ray findings seen in kids the same age.)
These children don't have any signs or symptoms of diseases that affect growth.
They tend to reach puberty later than their peers do, with delay in the onset of sexual
development and the pubertal growth spurt. But because they continue to grow until
an older age, they tend to catch up to their peers when they reach adult height. One
or both parents or other close relatives often had a similar "late-bloomer" growth
pattern.
Familial (or genetic) short stature: This is a condition in which
shorter parents tend to have shorter children. This term applies to short children
who don't have any symptoms of diseases that affect their growth. Kids with familial
short stature still have growth spurts and enter puberty at normal ages, but they
usually will only reach a height similar to that of their parents.
With both constitutional growth delay and familial short stature, kids and families
need to be reassured that the child does not have a disease or medical
condition that poses a threat to health or that requires treatment.
However, because they may be short or may not enter puberty when their classmates
do, some may need extra help coping with teasing or reassurance that they will go
through full sexual development eventually. In a few children who are very short or
very late entering puberty, hormone treatment may be helpful.