Growth hormone deficiency

[bognorbanana]

My son has been put forward for a "stim test" to test his growth hormone levels. He is very short and has been under the paediatric team for the past two years due to failure to thrive. Does anyone have similar stories? Thanks

How old is he? Does he have any other symptoms? My son is short - under the charts - but is not growth hormone deficient. He is two and has also been ftt.

The UK charity Child Growth Foundation has lots of advice on this and a Facebook group of parents to offer support to others going through issues with child growth.
It sounds like you are having the right tests.

DD had a stim test a few years ago.

It's not much fun for you as a parent, but they seem to cope okay. We had to starve her for 12 hours (easy), they then put in a cannula and took baseline bloods. She was then given a shot of glycagon and they took bloods every 20 minutes for about 5 hours.

They test blood sugar at each draw and if it gets too low then they will bring them back up again. DD got very sleepy and pale and it was hard not letting her fall asleep. The hospital play therapists were brilliant in helping keep her awake. Once it was finished, she had to eat an enormous tray of food and rest until her blood sugar levels were completely normal again - I was very worried we wouldn't be able to leave as they have to eat all the food and DD has an appetite like a small mouse. She ate the lot!

DD has growth delay and almost undetectable IGF-1 but plenty of growth hormone - she just can't use it properly.

Good luck with the testing - it's a long day and you feel pretty crap watching, but they bounce back really fast.