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Our son is very small. He is about 37 inches tall and weighs less than 30 lbs. We took him to see an endocrinologist and all his blood work came back as normal. However, his bone age is 2 years 8 months and he turned 4 this past April. Does anyone have any ideas on what this means in terms of why they should be so different? Why would your bone age be so far behind your chronological age? Is this more common in adopted children because of malnutrition. We adopted him when he was 6 months old, so he was pretty young, but he was in an orphanage with very few resources and they told me he was always hungry even after they fed him. Could this have put him so far behind?
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Our son is turning 6 in two weeks and weighs 34 lbs and is 42 inches tall. He was adopted at age 3 and weighed 19 lbs. Obviously, there may be a genetic predispostion to being small statured, but our Dr. feels that the underlying reason may be generational poverty - the absence of tooth enamel, even on permanent teeth is one symptom which leads him to this theory. Our newly adopted son (6 weeks ago) is 4.5 years old, 34 Lbs. and 40 inches tall. He has yet to go to the Dr., but appears healthy. He was, by far, the largest child in his orphanage. Barbara
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A close friend of mine during childhood had bone age that was about 2-2.5 years younger than her chronological age. She was not an adopted child.
However, her's was hormonal. She went to an endocrine clinic regularly and took growth hormones as a child. She only reached a full grown height of 4'6".
My son is also small for his age. When adopted af 3, he was 22-24 lbs. I don't recall his height, but he only wore 18 months clothes. He will be 5 tomorrow and is only 34 lbs.
I've discussed with my ped. on a couple of occassions. His height and weight are on the chart, but on the lowest end. However, he is growing along that low end. My concern isn't so much his height, but his weight. He's gained very little weight, but has grown fairly alot in height over the last 2 years. But he's 5 and wears mostly 3T's and an occasional 4T.
I would press your ped to track his growth rate a little closer, and if the growth rate isn't staying on track, I would push for more testing. Was the endocrinologist a pediatric endocrinologist? If not, maybe try seeing one. Sometimes it just pays to see a pediatric specialist. Kids really aren't just mini adults.
And if you don't understand anything your doc says, don't leave his/her office until they can explain things so that you understand.
Thanks for the replies. Our son is also growing along the bottom of the curves, but consistently off the bottom of them. I keep waiting for the growth spurt that many others have seen in their children, but it never arrives! We did go and see a pediatric endocrinologist. She is going to monitor his growth over the next year to see how he progresses. I guess we'll just wait and see how things go.
It's great that you saw a ped specialist. Keep a growth chart of your own if you don't already.
Something that is very important, if you don't feel comfortable with your doc or your specialists attention to your concerns, get a second opinion. Most insurance's cover them.
My mother is one of those people that believes that docs are smart and they know everything. So she trusts everything that is told to her by anyone with an MD at the end of their title. This has hurt her in the past, but she hasn't learned to ask more questions, bring someone with her, etc.
You may love your doc, as I do mine, but if you don't think that they're paying enough attention, ask to see someone else. It couldn't hurt. And sometimes a fresh pair of eyes on the situation can really help.
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