To be worried my 5 year old hasn't grown in a year?

[glutten4punishment]

So my 5 year old DD hasn't grown at all in a year. She's very small for her age as it is. She was measured at school last June and has remained the same height all year. Same size uniform for the duration of the year etc.

Should I be worried?

I would definitely make a GP appointment for that. If she hasn't grown in a year and is already small then she will have dropped centiles. Has she put weight on?

I can't remember her weight from last year but given her younger sibling is currently only 4lbs away from her I'd guess not.

She's not unhealthy, never sick. Mild asthma but it's managed well. She eats a very balanced diet. Sleeps well and has lots of energy.

My mums side of the family is small (I'm 5'2") and my mum is insisting it's genetic and I shouldn't take her to the GP and draw her attention to it.

But she's really tiny! Going into Y2 and she's smaller than a lot of reception kids.

I don't remember my girls growing much at that age. Then around 9 they didn't stop. Their feet only ever went up half a size by the summer after being measured the August before. They were small too 0.4th and 9th percentiles respectively. Dd2 is still the smallest in her class. They wore the same clothes for 2 years as didn't grow out of them. Do you have any other worries? Does she eat well, healthy and active?

Sorry x post

Weigh and measure her and see how that plots in her red book - if she's dropped centiles, then you should def go to the GP

She's just on the line between 0.4th/2nd.
Hmmmm.

I'd speak to a GP. You could ask for a phone consultation first and discuss your concerns then book an actual appointment if the gp wants to see her.

Mine stopped growing just before her 5th birthday and I had one hell of a job getting any professionals to recognise it, if I had my time again I would push harder for answers. My daughter is also asthmatic but hers was poorly controlled at that age and she was on very high doses of oral and inhaled steroids.

I’d get the GP involved just to check everything is going well

To be clear, I wouldn't be worried about very slow growth, but no growth at all I think needs at least a discussion. The fact that she has plenty of energy is an excellent sign that all is likely to be well though.

How many centiles ahs she dropped? My DD was born on the 50th but by her 5th birthday was at 0.4%.

Bloodywhitecat - how old is your DD now?

Did she stop growing entirely at 5 and if so, what has the diagnosis been?

I was teeny tiny at that age and barely grew, did all my growing in one summer at 12, it was very painful! I ended up 5'7, above average height for a British woman.

On the other hand, my cousin stopped growing at about eight and ended up diagnosed with a hormone deficiency that restricted his growth. With medical help he made it to 5'6 but that was an effort.

I'd get her to the GP just to get her checked out at least, it could be nothing, it could be something. It does no harm to have a professional opinion!

@bloodywhitecat - exactly the same as your DD. Was born 50th, now 0.4th/2nd (and that's both height and weight). She's almost 6.

What was the outcome in your daughter's case?

I think if my DDs case was just slow growth, I'd be less concerned. My side of the family is small after all. I had thought she'd grown maybe a couple of CM but that's not the case.

Her finger and toe nails also don't grow I've noticed. I haven't seen it at home but I wouldn't be surprised if she bites her fingernails in school so I'll be keeping an eye on that this summer. But it's weird her toe nails have stopped growing. This has alerted me the most.
But on the other hand, her hair is growing completely fine!

Ignore your mum
Take her to your gp asap

I’m tiny, I’m 5ft tall... the tallest female in my family is 5ft 3.
My DD isn’t particularly tall or small and although her growth has slowed down her finger and toe nails need cutting at least once a fortnight, her hair needs cutting at least once every 3 months.

How is she healing? If she cuts herself does it take a long time to heal up?

Get your DD checked. My DS dropped centiles and he ended up having an abnormality in his pituitary and has been on growth hormone injections since. Hormones are really important for development and not just growth. My DS is also on thyroxine and is also being monitored through puberty incase he needs help. Zero growth over a year is not ‘normal’ so get your young one checked

Take her to the gp. We were under the dietician at great Ormond street for a while with DD1 and she always said to focus on height rather than weight gain as a sign of a healthy growing child.

Crossing two centile lines on the WHO chart generally triggers a recommendation that children are seen. Being short is different to not consistently tracking the curve in terms of growth.

Some children have a growth deficiency which can be remedied with daily hormone injections. A consultant endocrinologist is the person who can diagnose that and prescribe treatment.

I had to be very firm with the GPs and guide them on what I thought the issue was and what I thought needed to be done.

We were referred to a paediatrician as the first step but DD is now growing again so suspect it was just constitutional growth delay (my DD is younger than yours).

Phone gp and have a chat.

Definitely go to the GP. Turners Symdrome or another growth condition might be a possibility and the quicker it's diagnosed the better as she might need to start growth hormone.
It might be nothing but it's worth getting checked.

My ds(7) is a poor grower and diagnosed with short stature (this is actually a side effect from a genetic disorder that has since been diagnosed) so I've been where you are trying to decide whether to see gp, we were a bit younger than your dd age when we did.

Go and see gp. They will measure and track her. Likely they will then ask you to return in a few months for remeasure to see if there has been any change. Poss also look at doing bloods (insulin like growth factor is worth asking to test for as this is can be a flag but isn't routinely tested so might need to wait for paed referral but can always ask)

After this, they should refer you to a paediatrician for monitoring. Make sure you ask for the hand X-ray to establish growth age (we have a 2 years growth delay so they think/hope he will just keep going for 2 more years compared to everyone else)

We were also then sent for growth hormone testing which were negative so we were back to sq one but the endocrine paediatrician was fantastic at going through all the possibles and ruling everything out (this was how we eventually got to caused by nf1 as process of deduction).

The outcome for us just knowing but being unable to do anything about it was still worth it because it ruled out worries and concerns and also meant we put into place coping strategies for being smaller (reaching things, strength, activities etc).

(For context, ds is off the chart at the bottom and is 105cm tall age 7 end of y2- I think he was about 99 at the end of reception)

Definitely go to the GP. It could be just that she's genetically short, but there are a few things to rule out, notably Turner Syndrome which is very rare but tends to manifest between the ages of 4 and 6. Hypothyroidism is also a possibility.

Could be indicative of malabsorption- including coeliac (some people have atypical manifestation of the disease). Is definitely go to the GP.

When I say manifest by the way, I mean that it can become apparent then due to lack of growth - the syndrome itself is something girls are born with.