ENLmedical.com: Conditions And Concerns: Medical Encyclopedia

Short stature

Considerations:
Short stature is a relative term used for children or adolescents who are significantly below the average height of their peers.

Short stature is not necessarily a symptom or sign. Two relatively short but entirely normal parents may have a short but entirely normal child who falls below the two standard deviation mark in height. On the other hand, short stature may be a symptom caused by a medical condition and, as many of these conditions are treatable, should be evaluated by a health care provider.

Common Causes:

familial short stature also genetic short stature (inherited height is below average but normal)
delayed puberty (a cause of temporary short stature, self-correcting, with normal height achieved)
precocious puberty
congenital hypothyroidism
hypothyroidism
achondroplasia
hypopituitarism ( pituitary dwarfism )
craniopharyngioma
progeria
Morquio syndrome
Noonan syndrome
osteogenesis imperfecta
rickets
Russell-Silver syndrome
Sanfilippo syndrome
Turner's syndrome
Cockayne's syndrome
Rothmund-Thomson syndrome
Bloom's syndrome
Seckel's syndrome
Cornelia de Lange syndrome
Hallerman-Streiff syndrome
Aarskog syndrome
adrenocortical carcinoma
hydrocarbon pneumonia

Note: There may be other causes of short stature. This list is not all inclusive, and the causes are not presented in order of likelihood. The causes of this symptom can include unlikely diseases and medications. Furthermore, the causes may vary based on age and gender of the affected person. Use the Symptom Analysis option to explore the possible explanations for short stature, occurring alone or in combination with other problems.

Home Care:
No particular care is indicated for short stature. If short stature is associated with a treatable medical condition, then the appropriate prescribed care should be undertaken.

Call Your Healthcare Provider If:

your child appears to be significantly shorter than the majority of children his or her age or if the rate of growth has decreased or stopped.

What to Expect:
The medical history will be obtained and a physical examination performed.

Medical history questions documenting your symptom in detail may include:

family history
- How tall are the parents? grandparents?
- How tall are the siblings (brothers or sisters)?
- Are there other relatives that less than average height?
- Have any family members been diagnosed with a disorder associated with short stature (see the causes section of this document)?
child's history
- Has the child begun to show signs of puberty?
- At what age did puberty signs begin?
- Has the child always been on the small side of the growth charts?
- Was the child growing normally and then the rate of growth began to slow?
other
- What other symptoms are also present?

Physical examination:
The height, weight, and arm and leg lengths will be measured in addition to a general physical examination. If the short stature appears to be a sign of some medical abnormality, further tests including laboratory studies and X-rays may be indicated.

Diagnostic tests:
If the short stature appears to be familial in nature or merely delayed, no further evaluation will be made other than possibly a bone age X-ray to determine if the bone age is appropriate for the patient's height age. (If an child is 8 years old and is only as tall as a 6-year old, a bone age of 6 years would suggest that growth was merely delayed and that future height should be normal.)

After seeing your health care provider:
Although your health care provider keeps records of height and weight from routine examinations, you may find it helpful to maintain your own records of the child's height and weight. You may want to bring these records to your health care provider's attention if the growth seems slow or the child seems small.

If a disorder was diagnosed by your health care provider as the cause of your child's short stature, you may want to note that diagnosis in your personal medical record.