stringbean
New member
My daughter has been on growth hormone for three years and we've had no problems with it. However, she does not produce growth hormone, so this is a replacement for her -- it wasn't prescribed as any sort of a boost to increase her height, so I don't know if her experience will apply to your son's situation.
My daughters are adopted, so we couldn't address what heights her birthparents were at any particular age. It didn't seem to matter to the doctors. She had stopped growing when she was five and for two years she stayed at 44 inches and 44 pounds. She was in the 50%ile in height and weight as a toddler and by the time we saw the endocrinologist, she had dropped off the charts in both categories.
Once they determined that she didn't produce growth hormone, they did an x-ray of her hand to determine "bone age". (They look at the size of the bones and the gap between the bones.) The x-ray showed my daughter's bone age was two years behind her chronological age, which was actually good news. It means that she'll hit puberty two years later than normal and she'll grow for an extra two years. Also, when trying to see where she is on the growth charts, we looked at six year olds rather than eight year olds. Suddenly she was back on the charts...
They also did an MRI to make sure there was no tumor on her brain that was causing the lack of hormone. Once she was cleared on all the tests, the hospital contacted the insurance company to get approval for the medication, which is quite expensive if you're not approved -- somewhere around $10,000+ per year.
She grew almost two inches in the first <i>six weeks </i>on the medication. After three years, she is now in the 35%ile on height and weight. We met with the endocrinologist last week and he said that she is expected to grow to 5'4", and while my daughter is disappointed she won't be 6' tall, it's so much better than the 3'8" she'd be without medication!!!
She takes a shot every night. Honestly, I had no problem at all giving her the shot. My husband took several months before he'd even try doing it. And now at age 11, she does the shot herself. She's had no side effects of headaches or anything else. Earlier this summer, she had some aches and pains and the pediatrician said it was actually growing pains because she was suddenly growing very rapidly.
I don't know if any of this will help you with questions about your son -- my daughter does not have CF (her sister does), so I have no idea if that makes any difference on how the growth hormone will perform for your son. She does, however, have asthma and there hasn't been any issues with the combination of the various meds that she needs. So for us, it has totally been worth it. She's grown well, she's had no side effects... The medication comes in a click-pen, so there is no fussing with pouring or measuring. It's just snapping a needle on the top of the pen, clicking to the appropriate dosage, injecting, and throwing away the needle. So easy a child can do it -- eventually.
I hope that helps... Good luck!
My daughters are adopted, so we couldn't address what heights her birthparents were at any particular age. It didn't seem to matter to the doctors. She had stopped growing when she was five and for two years she stayed at 44 inches and 44 pounds. She was in the 50%ile in height and weight as a toddler and by the time we saw the endocrinologist, she had dropped off the charts in both categories.
Once they determined that she didn't produce growth hormone, they did an x-ray of her hand to determine "bone age". (They look at the size of the bones and the gap between the bones.) The x-ray showed my daughter's bone age was two years behind her chronological age, which was actually good news. It means that she'll hit puberty two years later than normal and she'll grow for an extra two years. Also, when trying to see where she is on the growth charts, we looked at six year olds rather than eight year olds. Suddenly she was back on the charts...
They also did an MRI to make sure there was no tumor on her brain that was causing the lack of hormone. Once she was cleared on all the tests, the hospital contacted the insurance company to get approval for the medication, which is quite expensive if you're not approved -- somewhere around $10,000+ per year.
She grew almost two inches in the first <i>six weeks </i>on the medication. After three years, she is now in the 35%ile on height and weight. We met with the endocrinologist last week and he said that she is expected to grow to 5'4", and while my daughter is disappointed she won't be 6' tall, it's so much better than the 3'8" she'd be without medication!!!
She takes a shot every night. Honestly, I had no problem at all giving her the shot. My husband took several months before he'd even try doing it. And now at age 11, she does the shot herself. She's had no side effects of headaches or anything else. Earlier this summer, she had some aches and pains and the pediatrician said it was actually growing pains because she was suddenly growing very rapidly.
I don't know if any of this will help you with questions about your son -- my daughter does not have CF (her sister does), so I have no idea if that makes any difference on how the growth hormone will perform for your son. She does, however, have asthma and there hasn't been any issues with the combination of the various meds that she needs. So for us, it has totally been worth it. She's grown well, she's had no side effects... The medication comes in a click-pen, so there is no fussing with pouring or measuring. It's just snapping a needle on the top of the pen, clicking to the appropriate dosage, injecting, and throwing away the needle. So easy a child can do it -- eventually.
I hope that helps... Good luck!