hehehehehe the growth hormone jiggy dance

[lvs_eeyore]

I am sitting here giggling at my seven year old. Just recently he was put on growth hormone by his endocrinologist. Basically he has stopped growing as did his brother at the same age. He was also put on it. Well he has only been on it a week and he is a little skitterish about the shots every night. Fast forward to a couple of minutes ago when he asked me if he could take his shot. I asked why and he said I dont think its working Mom. I told him to come over to me and we would measure him against where he normally stands on me. Now I know there is no way he could grow in one week but he measured himself and HE thinks he grew. He was dancing around going IM GROWING, UH HUH IM GROWING, IM BIGGER, THIS IS KEWL IM GROWING!!! It was just too cute and I dont think he will be as skitterish about the shots anymore.

 

[Stitchfans]

My brother many years ago took those shots and said they were rather painful. They didn't help that much either. Sure hope it works for your son. The dance though sure was cute. Good luck.

 

[snoopy]

Awww, he sounds sweet! And hey, you know what they say, a positive attitude is the key to success...if he thinks he is growing, he probably is!

 

[Dcat2u]

My 14yo DD has been on them for 2yrs now, they have made a differance. After the first week she was giving her own shots, she tends to take them in her stomach or in her leg. She only has about 3-6 months left on them.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My 9yodd has been on them for 2 1/2 years. She STILL hates getting her shots! OY!

Also I am happy to report, she has grown well and looks like every other kid in class.

PS...We are changing insurance and had to find out how much these shots are...ready...7,584.19 per 3 months. Comes out to 30,000 a year!

 

[lvs_eeyore]

My eldest has been on them for two years and has grown two feet. We are hoping for as good a response from our youngest. It is horribly expensive. I was told my eldests growth hormone runs 1300 a vial and he uses 3 vials a month. The youngest is also 1300 a vial and he will use two a month. Thankfully so far our insurance is covering it. If for some reason they stop we would have to go through the Eli Lilly program that goes by what you make a year as to what you pay.

He was just so cute dancing around the way he was.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I was told my eldests growth hormone runs 1300 a vial and he uses 3 vials a month. The youngest is also 1300 a vial and he will use two a month.
He was just so cute dancing around the way he was.

You have "vials"? I have cartridges that go into a "pen".

I am happy that your son is happy because I know how hard it is to get those shots going.

 

[lvs_eeyore]

It actually is a cartridge that goes in a pen injector but the pharmacy calls it a vial so thats why I said vial LOL.

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

Is there a condition you have to have to get insurance to cover that? My 13 year old nephew is shorter than most 3rd graders I've seen and my 3 year old neice is as tall as my 1 year old daughter. Seems like both could benefit from it, but neither have been diagnosed with anything...

 

[barkley]

my bf from highschool had just the opposite with her boys-they were growing non stop from day one! the younger one came up to his kindergarten teacher's shoulder, third grade on he was as tall if not taller than all of his teachers. there was no such thing in her house as the small electric cars-by the time the kids were longing for them they exceeded the height and weight max. people also were unrealistic about their expectations re. behaviour (but most folks were off at least 5 years in estimating their ages).

she said it got to be a real challenge finding clothes that met the school uniform standards while shopping in the men's department. the trade off was that they were done by their first year in highschool-so there was no outgrowing their clothes before they wore out.

i'm so happy for all of you who have found medical practitioners who will listen to you and make the appropriate referrals for treatment (and are blessed to have insurance companies that will cover the costs).

maybe you can throw some of his pants into a higher heat setting in the dryer and shrink them a bit-he will be even more convinced about his growth spirt!

 

[lvs_eeyore]

Texas Mouskateer. Both my boys started to fall off the growth charts starting at about age five. The kids regular doctor noticed it and we watched it and kept hoping for a growth spurt. My eldest was nine and in the 3rd percentile height wise before we sought help from a pediatric endocrinologist. My son was tested and it showed that he is growth hormone deficient. With my younger son we started earlier with the endocrinologist...age seven. When they tested my younger boy he was even worse than my eldest in how much growth hormone he produced.

We were actually shocked that dhs insurance started paying for it for my eldest when we changed plans. The other insurance we had didnt. We are now waiting to see whats going to happen now that the youngest is on it too. We still havent gotten the official authorization but Lilly sent the product anyway to get him started. Now my ins can either pay for both boys, deny one and pay the other, or deny both now as my other boy has also come up for re-auth. If you cant get it covered by insurance there is a program through Eli-Lilly where they determine your income and then go by that to determine what you pay per year. Could be one cartridge or more or less. Really depends on what you make. Currently with our two boys on it the cost is 78000.00 a year! Without these plans there is no way we could pay for this and my boys would be destined to be very tiny.

My advice to you is to seek the help of a very good pediatric endocrinologist and let him take a history on the kids.....bring their growth charts from their pediatrician and let him do the, bone age xray on them and the stim test on them to see how much they produce. Thats really the first step. All that will determine whether the kids need it or not. Some kids are naturally tiny for a long time then spurt up but those kids will show normal on a stim test.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Is there a condition you have to have to get insurance to cover that? My 13 year old nephew is shorter than most 3rd graders I've seen and my 3 year old neice is as tall as my 1 year old daughter. Seems like both could benefit from it, but neither have been diagnosed with anything...

My dd was born early 5 weeks and she was 16 1/2" long which qualifies as SGA (small for gestational age).
She was never diagnosed as "failure to thrive" because she did grow some, but it was bare minimum.
She was about -15% (give or take) on the growth chart always for height & weight.
So I would bring her in every 6 months to height/weight to keep an eye on it.
From age 5-6, she flat lined and was no longer growing or gaining weight.
My infant nephews weighed more than her when she was 5 years old.

So then I took her to the endo and she did some tests to rule out chromosome things and then put her on growth hormone. She never had to do the "stim" test, because she qualified as SGA.

 

[Sleepy]

I have always been curious about this treatment. Can someone please give me an example of actual height and age your child was when you started treatment and then give me an example of growth later on? My son has always been very short for his age and very skinny. Actually, being skinny makes him look that much shorter. There was a time when he did not seem to grow at all. He started out life a bigger baby and then a robust 3 year old. Not sure what happened after that. Anyway, at the end of age 12, he was the size of a 10 year old. Since March of this year, he has hit a growth spurt and is now almost 5ft1in tall. He is 13-1/2 years old. While he is not "tall" for his age, I do not worry because my brother was about the same height at that age. I am only 5 ft tall. My brothers height at that age I know for a fact because I have a picture of us together and I did not grow after age 13 and I was 14 in the picture. My brother was only a wee bit taller than me and he was 13. My brother did not really start growing until 10-12 grade and then in his 20's, he finally stopped growing and was 6ft2in tall.

What I am trying to ask is.......how do you know a child needs a growth hormone rather than it being a case of slow growth? Would it damage the child to give he/she this drug if their own body intends to grow later on by itself? I always feared my son being short like me, but then he just started growing one day and still has not stopped. He practically grows out of clothing before we remove the tags. I look at my brother and then my son and wonder if he will just be a late grower like my brother was. Then again, I look at the people where I live.....they all average around 5 ft tall. Unless you have a job which requires you to be tall, what's so wrong with being short unless you are so short it interferes with daily tasks? Not trying to start a debate on WHY the decision for these drugs are made, just wondering HOW a doctor makes the decision to start them when everyone grows at different rates and some of those people who are "short" even into early teens can become one of the tallest adults naturally on their own (such as my brother).

 

[The Mystery Machine]

What I am trying to ask is.......how do you know a child needs a growth hormone rather than it being a case of slow growth?
It is obvious.


Would it damage the child to give he/she this drug if their own body intends to grow later on by itself?
The hormone is making up for a deficiency. Kind of like giving insulin to someone. It is keeping the body on a normal track. If the hormone is not given then you lose out on those years of normal growth. There is no "shooting up".

Unless you have a job which requires you to be tall, what's so wrong with being short unless you are so short it interferes with daily tasks?
It did. You don't know how humilating it was for my dd to be 5 years old and not be able to reach a sink, ride a ride, or anything normal for her age range.
The constant barrage of children shunning her because she looked like a preschooler. She also sounded like one. When a person is that short they have a shrill voice.

Not trying to start a debate on WHY the decision for these drugs are made, just wondering HOW a doctor makes the decision to start them when everyone grows at different rates and some of those people who are "short" even into early teens can become one of the tallest adults naturally on their own (such as my brother).
Again my dd was not going to "suddenly grow". I know that is hard for you to understand. At her current rate of growth she probably would have almost made 4ft.

So the question to you is would you be comfortable knowing your dd would be 3ft 12" and you knew you could have done something?

 

[Dcat2u]

We are lucky that the military covers my daughters meds. She has been seeing a Pediatric Endo since she was 5 for high cholesterol (hereditary from her biological fathers side). She was always very small, when we moved we even had her re-do 1st grade (at the advise of her Dr at Walter Reed Med Center) and she was the oldest and still the smallest. She had stopped growing by the age of 12 when they decided to do the growth hormones. She is now the size of her classmates and has 3-6 months left on the meds. She can't do the injector pens because of the dose she takes, she draws her own meds up in the syringe and gives her own injections.

 

[lvs_eeyore]

Mystery Machine I agree with everything you said. My boys never would grow to normal height if not for the growth hormone because their bodies do not produce the amount they need for normal growth. My second grader is the size of a kindergartener and is constantly hassled at school because they think he should be in one place with the kindergarteners than with the kids in the second grade. He cannot reach the things that normally a kid his age can reach. He is very much treated like a baby by people because he is so small and his voice is that of a much younger child. Same thing happened to my eldest except it was worse because he was older. He was picked on constantly because he was so small and had a very high childlike voice. Growth hormone cannot hurt someone who has a deficiency. They will not have the normal growth spurt that other children have without the meds. I dont know if used in a child with no deficiency if it would harm them. Pediatric endos are VERY cautious about who they use these meds in though. There is all kinds of testing that goes on before they even consider them. You have got to prove need.

I am a very short female who probably needed growth hormone when I was young but it just wasnt available when I was my kids age so no testing was ever done on me. This is probably where my kids get it from. Their father is of nomal height. I know what I went/go through as a small female and I definitely do not want my children to go through the same thing....which is even worse for a short male. There is no need for them to also as there is the hormone available now which they clearly need by testing. My eldest who did not grow from age five to nine has shot up two feet in two years on the meds. They do work and work well for him. He is now my height and from all predictions will probably be between 5 10 to 6 foot tall by the end of the growth period. We are hoping for the same good response from my youngest and we should get that or even better as his level was lower than my eldests.