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Took Steroids For Asthma. Have Lots Of Body Hair With Advanced Bone Age. What Should Be Done?
Question: My son is 14 years 10 months. he has a lot of body hair, beard . his height is only 5'3''. he had taken steroids for his asthma as a young child. his bone age is 15.8 . doctor says he has only 2-3 months left to grow. please is it correct. can anything help him to grow for a little longer? i am 4 ft 10 inches , my husband is 5'8'. however, i have seen children born of 4'10' mother and father 5'3'' to grow to 5'8'"
Hello,
Thanks for writing in. Boys grow until the epiphyses of long bones are fused. Epiphyses start fusing at the age of 11.5 yrs and get completely fused by 15 - 16 yrs. After the epiphyses of long bones have fused only slight increment of about 1-2 cm is possible due to increase in vertebral body height which is not dependent on hormones and unpredictable. Children can overgrow their parents but that should happen before epiphyses are fused. At bone age of 15.5 you can expect only slight improvement in height if any. Hope this helps.
Shivaprasad
Thanks for writing in. Boys grow until the epiphyses of long bones are fused. Epiphyses start fusing at the age of 11.5 yrs and get completely fused by 15 - 16 yrs. After the epiphyses of long bones have fused only slight increment of about 1-2 cm is possible due to increase in vertebral body height which is not dependent on hormones and unpredictable. Children can overgrow their parents but that should happen before epiphyses are fused. At bone age of 15.5 you can expect only slight improvement in height if any. Hope this helps.
Shivaprasad
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Yes but my question is can anything be done to delay bone age so that he gets a little more time
Vertibra growth can be increased?
Vertibra growth can be increased?
Already bone age is advanced to 15.5 yrs which means epiphyses are fused or nearly so. Im afraid at this point in time no intervention is possible. Vertabral growth has got nothing to do with epiphyseal closure at long bones. There is no treatment that can increase vertebral height. But its advisable to take nutritious high protein diet, calcium and vitamin d supplementation, and perform weight bearing physical activity. We can only hope for the best with these measures. Growth increment therapy has best results when given befote 11 yrs of age. All that I want to say is even if any treatment like growth hormone is given, it wont have any significant effect now.
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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