Height Growth

[Cupkatemom]

How long did it take for your child to significantly grow vertically after they started treatment? We are over 5 months in...and growth is minimal, but we've gained all the weight back. Just did a Fecal Cal...waiting on results to see if inflammation is still present.

 

[my little penguin]

Weight first - 6 months to 8 month later before growth -
Three years from dx still catching up to percentile before dx.

It takes time

 

[Cross-stitch gal]

I didn't start treatment till I was 18. By then, it was too late for me to grow taller. I think it would depend on how long it takes for a person to be diagnosed. But, my parents aren't terribly tall either. So, even though my growth had been stunted I'm not sure how much taller I might have been if I would have been diagnosed before I was 18.

 

[DustyKat]

Sarah was diagnosed during emergency when she was 14. At the time she had delayed puberty and was in very poor condition so height, weight and development were severely compromised.

Surgery put her straight into remission. Due to her being very underweight I didn’t expect her to be anywhere near 100% for at least 6 months. Over those 6 months she gradually gained weight, going from 34kms to 44kgs. During that time she had very, very small height gain. Once her weight stabilised she plateaued for about another 3 or 4 months and then puberty hit with a vengeance. The next 12 months saw what I would say was a growth (height and weight) and development stage occur that you would normally expect to see over a 2-3 year period. It really was that dramatic for her.

Matt was diagnosed at 17, the diagnosis was very quick and off very few symptoms. His development wasn’t really affected by his disease.

Dusty. xxx

 

[CrohnsKidMom]

My son was dx'd at age 8 and was put on prednisone, which he ended up being on for a total of 5 months. He didn't grow in height at all during this time, but he did gain weight. Once off the prednisone he started to grow in height.

 

[CarolinAlaska]

Jaedyn wasn't on pred much (one month total) and she grew 5 inches since diagnosis, in spite of still being very low in weight still (after gaining 22 lbs, she's stuck in the 3rd percentile again and losing...)

 

[Patricia56]

traditional wisdom is that weight comes before height.

5 months is too soon to expect growth. Even if optimal she's only been in remission for a couple of months.

Try to be patient. If no growth at 1 year then time to re-evaluate remission unless she's been on any kind of steroids. Even Entocort stops growth.

Growth is generally looked at over 18 month to 2 year span because kids grow in spurts, mostly in spring and summer just like the flowers.

 

[Cupkatemom]

I guess I need to be a little more patient! Thank you all for your support and responses.

 

[Jmrogers4]

Just came home from a week long trip and Jack is now the same height as me! He was 5'1" in December and is now 5'4". Happy dance so after 6 months remission we are really starting to see height growth just even the last few weeks. I so understand the patience thing if you read any of my past posts you know this has always been a huge concern for us

 

[Johnnysmom]

My son grew about an inch in the 6 months or so after starting meds. The next year he grew 3 inches and the next year, 5 inches. Once you get the weight up, it does take a while but they can catch up quickly.

We saw an endocrinologist and it was really helpful. It can answer a lot of questions and make sure everything is working normally.

This is a great article on catch up growth. It is not specific to crohn's but we were told that our son would eventually get back any growth he missed out on.

http://edrv.endojournals.org/content/18/5/646.full.pdf

 

[Jenn]

My son hasn't had any catch-up spurts (in 3 years), but his growth restarted just a few months after effective treatment. It's still charting and we plot it each checkup (every 4 months). We check in with the endocrinologist once/year along with a bone age hand xray to keep tabs on it (2 years delayed). I'm thinking he won't catch up til he's completely done, like age 20, long after everyone else is done.

 

[lad473]

My son was diagnosed at 10.5 Started Remicade 2 yrs ago. The first year on Remicade he regained the weight he lost and began growing like he had before but no significant shooting up as he had hoped. All bloodwork signified he was in remission. His scopes after one year were significantly improved, but still not good enough to declare remission.

Now he has grown 5 inches in the past 9 months, so we believe he has caught up to where he would have been without the year of no growth/weight loss. Seems like it just took a while for complete remission. Best of luck!