Short Stature in Children Symptoms

Short parents tend to have short children. Children with familial short stature do not have any symptoms related to diseases that affect growth. Children with familial short stature have normal growth spurts and enter puberty at a normal age. They typically reach an adult height similar to that of their parents.

Children with constitutional growth delay do not have any diseases. These children enter puberty later than their peers. However, because they continue to grow for a longer period of time, they catch up to their peers as they reach their adult height, which is normal and comparable to their parents.

Some symptoms may signal a medical condition causing short stature. The following symptoms should be further investigated by your doctor or health care practitioner:

• Child has stopped growing or is growing slower than expected (less than 4 cm, or 2 in, each year in the pre-pubertal child of elementary school age)
• 
  
• Weight loss or gain (more than 5 lbs in a month)
• 
  
• Poor nutrition/loss of appetite
• 
  
• Delayed puberty (absent breast development by age 14 or absent menstrual spotting by age 15 for a girl or absent enlargement of the testes by age 14 for a boy); note that the presence or absence of pubic hair is not a reliable sign of pubertal development