0.4centile growth

[BeeMyBaby]

Hi, my son recently turned 4 and is currently tracking 0.4centile for height (born about 50th centile). I am 9th centile, dh is just about 50th centile and my two other children are just under 25centile.
Planning on visiting a paediatrician soon, can anyone share their experiences of having a very short child and what tests were done/ what was the outcome?
He had a health issue when he was two which we thought was the reason for his small stature but since that has been fixed he still hasn't gone up centiles.

[Jannt86]

I have Turners Syndrome which causes short stature. It's a female only genetic condition so won't be what's affecting your son. From memory a paediatrician examined me for physical features and then did some blood tests including a chromosome analysis. Probably the majority of investigation that they do will be blood tests and they will test for all sorts so wouldn't even want to begin telling you what. It could be that there's nothing wrong and he's just 'levelling out' but that's a sharp drop in his growth so I would've thought they'd definitely want to rule things out. Ultimately I had growth hormone injections btw which were pretty harmless and meant that I grew to a pretty respectable height. What they do for your son though will depend entirely on what (if anything) is the issue. Good luck xx

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Seeing a Paediatrician sounds like a good plan OP.

[BeeMyBaby]

@Jannt86 thank you for sharing your personal experiences that's very helpful.

@JiltedJohnsJulie and thank you for confirming that I should take him to a paediatrician, I've spoken to some others online who don't see it as an issue, but all my family think it is an issue so it's difficult to tell whether I am worrying over nothing.

[luckymagnoliatree]

I don't have any answers but I still wanted to share.

Our son who is 4 in July has always been small he was always around the 0.4th % as a baby but for some time now he has been tracking below that. I'm 5ft2 and his dad is about 5ft10. We have other issues with him including speech delay and have just found out he has global developmental delay and his paediatrician also mentioned he is hypermobile. She is sending him for a genetics blood test to see if that offers any answers to both the gdd and his slow growth. I think you are doing the right thing getting a referral to a paediatrician, hopefully they will be able to provide some answers 🙂

[Jannt86]

Yes I agree. I would push push push for a paeds referral and not take no for an answer as it's a very steep drop in growth and the growth curves are there to detect these things. Don't be fobbed off and good luck xx