Low growth hormone - 3 year old

[Dietmumof2]

Hi

I'm new to all this forum posting so hoping I've got the right thread.

I am really worried about my 3 year old son. He recently had some tests at the hospital one of which was for growth hormone. My son was always between 50th-75th percentile for height but at about 2.5 he started to drop to 25th percentile. His medical history includes recurrent chest infections after being admitted to hospital with lower lobe pneumonia. The tests also showed a borderline low IGG level which I have yet to fully discuss with the peadiatrician but a brief chat over the phone he said he wasn't worried about this due to his age.

Anyway, I'm really worrying about his growth hormone level. We have an appt with the peadiatrician on Monday following his secretary ringing to say his growth hormone level was on the low side of normal. She told him I was worried so go me a slot with him on Monday but she did say he was happy to wait until our scheduled appt in march as he wasn't overly worried.

I've since spent the last day googling and reading everything I can on GHD and am so worried its untrue. I'm worried he'll have to go for more hospital tests and what if I get resistance from the nhs to treat him because it's expensive???

Does anyone else have experience of this and any tips on what to ask the peadiatrician on Monday?

Xx

No help, I'm afraid, but bumping for you x

Bumping for the evening to see if anyone can advise x

speak to child growth foundation they really helpful.
www.childgrowthfoundation.org/

also make sure has been tested for coeliac disease - my dd failed to grow and was found to have coeliac

hormone tests turned out normal - one of them is day-long of in-hospital testing and not v nice but survivable

if he really is lacking growth hormone they will fund it for sure . dont worry about that aspect just now!!

my dd has growth hormone deficiency. Her first low IGF-1 result was when she was about 3....she started treatment at 6. She did have to go through lots of different tests but it's because they want to be absolutely sure that the cause is a deficiency. You'll probably find that they'll do a "wait and see" for a year or so before doing any intrusive testing.

We had no problems with the PCT funding treatment - if the tests show low IGF-1 then they have to.

Everything we read said that as long as children start treatment by their seventh birthday, then they will probably reach a good adult height.

I'd definitely ask for a wait and see approach for now - the tests haven't been overly pleasant.

Thanks ladies. Catesmum - did your little girl start to drop through the height percentiles? It does worry me they will do a 'wait and see' and he will drop even further! Has your little girl put on a growth spurt since being on the treatment?

Cestlavielife - he has been tested for coeliac and that came back negative. Thanks for the link I'll take a look.

Yes, she went from between 50th and 75th to below 0.4. Was complicated by other health issues, so didn't get picked up very early as ghd...but her growth was very slow from about a year old. She started school wearing 12-18 month clothes and had to carry a stool around with her to reach things.

She's shooting up now though - has grown 10cm this year.

That is quite a drop. Really good she's shooting up now. The peadiatrician sent us for an X-ray of his left hand so we'll see what comes of that. However when the nurse measured him he had grown and was following the 25th percentile sp there's a glimmer of hope there!! X