Constitutional Growth Delay

After a busy morning at the pool, I took all 3 kiddos to the doctor for their well child checkups.  What a circus!  My youngest is at that age when he is into EVERYTHING!  He was knocking over medical equipment and running up and down the halls.  My younger 2 received a clean bill of health.  My daughter has a faint heart murmur but it's not affecting her growth and development so it's not a concern.  With my oldest son we realized that his growth rate just isn't increasing like it should.  While most kids grow 3-4 inches per year (even if they're on the low end of the curve the rate should be about the same), he had only grown 2.  We saw this pattern last year and have been tracking it for a year to see if the rate would increase but unfortunately it did not.

His doctor considered sending him to an endocrinologist immediately but then decided to order a bone age (taken from x-ray) first.  If his bone age was that of a 4 or 5 year old then there would be cause for concern, but if his bone age is younger than his actual age then that means that he has a lot of growth potential left and should eventually catch up.  So after their well child checks we walked down to radiology around 4:00pm praying that they would be able to fit us in without much of a wait.  My younger 2 were pretty cranky since both had received shots.

Believe it or not, we walked up to radiology and they were free right then!!!  It was such a blessing!  My son walked in, had his hand x-ray, and was done in less than 5 minutes!  He was thrilled to be able to see the x-ray of his hand (he was all about x-rays and bones about a year ago).  I figured it would be a day or 2 before we got the results, but then at 5:30pm we received a phone call from his pediatrician.  The radiologist had already read it and she had the results!  Now that's service - it was so nice to get his results so quickly!!!!

In the end his bone age is significantly younger than his age - he turned 5 in May and his bone age was that of a 2.9 yr old!!!  That explains why I didn't even notice when I grabbed a pair of 3T shorts for him the other day and they fit. ;)  So, he has been diagnosed with constitutional growth delay.  While I am sad, overall this is good news because his growth potential is normal and most kids achieve a normal adult height.  I'm also glad to have some answers.  CGD kids grown and develop later than their peers.  Most of the negative outcomes in this population stem from poor self esteem.  I plan to do a LOT of reading on this in the next few weeks.