Aibu to be stressing about what my gp said today!

[somuchmess]

I took my 5 year old to the gp today as she has an infection on her leg and needed antibiotics.

While we were there the gp started talking about how small she was and asking how long it was until her 6th birthday etc.

Then he said about making sure there was no growth hormone deficiency.

Then he randomly seemed to change his mind and said "well someone has to be at the bottom of he chart". Have us the antibiotics and said goodbye!.

I just stood outside the door in a bit of a wtf state for a minute or two!

He told me to forget about it and not worry basically but now I AM worried about it!

Aibu to think you can't say that then change your mind in less than 5 minutes!

She sounds tiny. Your heights are identical to me and my husband.

My daughter is 5 and in 6-7 clothing for height. 115 cm. Size 12 feet.

My 3 year old son is 112! Also size 12 feet!

I really my two are tall (my son in particular) but that does sounds very very small for 6. Just looked at my red book and my two were this height at 2!

My ds is 5 and 105 cm and he’s being investigated for being small. So far it looks like his thyroid might be the culprit .

4teens were there any other particular things you noticed ? The only other thing apart from being short which probably isn't related is that she has never had to have a hair cut because her hair has grown so slowly - pic attached of her hair so you can see what I mean 😄.

Star she's size 8.5 feet. My 2 year old is size 7

My son was on the 5th cent he was the smallest in the year by far. GP did discuss referring him on at one point but held off. Luckily in an odd way he broke his arm when he was 14 and had an X-ray. The doctor looked at it and said my goodness you have some growing left in you. Apparently you can see gaps or something between the joints. He was a late developer , milk teeth , puberty etc. At 16 it hit in and the growing pains were quite bad. Couldn't do PE. Where I was replacing worn out shoes with the same size I now couldn't keep up with him. He's 6ft1 now. He still shocks people at 20 because they're expecting him to be small. He got called small .....his name for years.

somuchmess Hair was definitely one with mine. She had what I would call 'baby hair' for a long time.
One of the other issues my daughter had prior to being diagnosed was she was constantly ill. Had every cold, sniffle, bug going. The other twin didn't.
What are her features like? Does she have 'babyish' facial features at all?
Feel free to PM me if you'd prefer.

Another question for you - does she have any symptoms of dietary intolerance? If there's any chance at all that she's got coeliacs, then that can cause a reduction in growth as well because the gut damage can mean she absorbs less of the minerals she needs to grow. This happened to a friend of mine - undiagnosed coeliac, stopped growing completely when she turned 10 and was 4'11". Neither of her parents were very tall but she is still very short within her family and her brother is much taller than her (he didn't have coeliacs).

Just another thing to think about/check.

My daughter cruised steadily under the centile chart and is still doing so. I have had every midwife/health visitor share their opinion. I am 5'1 and my husband is 5'11. I am one of the tallest women in my family. None of my kids are going to be giants.

A 5 year old won't have a health visitor. You need to contact your school nurse

DD was tiny when she was born BTW - less than 6lb. Due to medical issues she was slow to gain weight and was on the 2nd centile for ages.

She is now 17, and almost as tall as me - 5'7".

Do you have the option to phone the gp and have a chat about her height. It's may need investigating, it may not.

I had loads of tests as a child. Genetics was the reason I was tiny, my father's family all short arses. I'm now 4ft 11 3/4. My younger sister is 5ft 5. She had my mother's family's genes.

Was she always tiny and on a low percentile, or has she gone down? My ds was on a relatively high %ile till he was 2, then just 'stopped' growing. He gradually dropped down the %iles, till he was literally in negative figures. The paediatrician just kept telling us to wait and not worry. Then we moved to Germany and on our 1st appointment at new paid, he referred us to endocrinologist. He now goes every 6 months, has had hand x-rays, and lots of tests. Endo. said they see all the time small kids who have been small for years and it's left too late. It frustrates them a lot, well the few I have seen. They have all said how good it is to get poor growth investigated early and not take a 'wait and see' approach.

for example, a common cause of poor growth is coeliac disease (first thing they tested my ds for). Coeliac disease often does not present with typical symptoms. It's important to know. Also checked levels of growth hormone, bone age (via hand x-ray) etc. so my view, based on personal experience, is to get it checked.

Just to say that sometimes genetics are the reason why someone is small, but it can be that they have inherited something that restricts their growth.
We had a lovely HV who told me of the time she had a child who was very small. Mum was barely 5 foot, as was aunt, granny etc. So she shouldn't have been too worried. She couldn't put a finger on why she was worried, but discussed it with Mum and they agreed to try a few minor tests. Turned out the child had (I think if I remember rightly) a thyroid issue which restricted their growth. Mum, aunt, and granny then had the test and found they had the same issue. She said the last time she'd seen the child they were 5'6" and may well not have finished growing.

So if you're worried, even if you have small family, it is still worth looking at.