Slow growth in nearly 3 year old

[newbrunette]

Hi there, my nearly 3 year old dd was on 91st centile for height for most of her first year. By the time she was 18 months this had dropped to 50th centile - enough of a concern for GP to refer us to consultant. She's now on 9th centile for height and 75th for weight. DH and I are both tall and ds, who is 5, is on 91st centile.

We just received a copy of a letter from hospital to our GP following our latest visit which makes us sound like neurotic parents, contains several inaccuracies and doesn't paint the full picutre. Since our first visit we have been seen by general paediatrician, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist and dietitian. We haven't requested any of these appointments btw - this is just the path that the investigation has taken. I worry that there has been no overview of her situation and we're just being passed around. All tests so far have been normal, so not sure what's causing the failure to grow (he height hasn't changed at all in the last 6 months).

Anyway, I'm keen to correct various things in the hospital letter and to paint a clear picture of the various issues, which the hospital letter doesn't. I'm posting on here to ask whether you think that would be reasonable (eg writing a letter to GP and hospital stating the facts), and also to see whether anyone has experienced similar growth issues. Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this.

Sorry to say but the wrong info and making you sound neurotic is just par for the course i would say!!

DS2 had one infection which lead to another and another until at age 14 months he went from 75th centile (birth to 14 months) to 9th. They did loads of tests with loads of consultants and eventually it came back that he'd had glandular fever (on top of pneumonia, asthma, salmonella - from nursery not me!!!). However, nobody was ever sent the letter saying that the test result was positive. I rang up in the end and got it but neither myself nor the GP received a letter saying that, although we received all the letters saying they could find nothing wrong!! So, although i know what caused the problem, there is no written record of it!!
When I saw the consultant initially, he did say that apparently the first 2 years of life is to do with nurture and the mothers health and after that it's to do with nature and genetics. That fitted for us as dp and myself are both quite small and ds2 has hovered between 9th and 25th centile ever since. Doesn't sound right for your dd though, especailly as her weight doesn't correspond with her height.

Sorry i can't be of more help but just though you might be able to ask about the nature/nuture thing, although it probably isn't right in your case. Also, to let you know that they won't think you're neurotic as all their letters sound like that!!! i did actually ask one consultant if he thought I was a neurotic mother and he looked at me in amazement and couldn't understand why I would think that!

Thanks for the reply and reassurance. Glad your ds is doing OK now. I had heard the thing about growth in the first year being due to nutrition etc and then genetics taking over but, as you say, this doesn't really seem to fit, given the rest of the family's heights. The odd thing is that her head and feet are growing but not the rest of her. Not to mention her tummy... She is becoming very round.

Obviously, I don't mind if she stays on 9th centile but she just keeps dropping and dropping so no idea when (if!) she's going to start growing again.

It's interesting about the glandular fever link - your poor ds. Dd does have a tendency to get one infection after another and gets fevers that last for days whenever she gets a cold/virus. No idea if this could possibly be linked.

Thanks for the reassurance re. the patronising letter. It's so hard not to feel paranoid. Why do they have to write like that??

No prblem. I hope you soon get some answers.

did they test for coeliac?
with my dd the no height growth turned out to be coeliac.

will she go back to growth clinic? they will maybe order more tests if she is not growing at all in six months.

oes she ahave any other issues at all? eg to suggest a genetic (in her genes) disorder ?