3 Year Check Up

Well, the tales of Sudduth Hobbits continue. Stacey left the shire this afternoon and took Julia to the pediatrician for her 3 year check up. The long and the "short" of it is that Julia has fallen off of the growth curve for height. Based on her parent's height she is probably not going to be much above 5 feet tall, if at all, anyway.

What concerned the pediatrician is that she has steadily dropped percentiles as time has passed, instead of staying within the same range. For example, it would be different if she started and stayed within the 0% to 10% range. Looking at the chart below for approximate values, at about 2 weeks she was at 70%, 4 months 65%, 6 months 60%, 9 months 30%, 12 months 17%, 18 months 17%, 24 months 9%, 36 months 4%.

So, he'd like us to go and see an endocrinologist to rule out any problems. Personally, I'm not too worried considering the rest of her development and behavior. If anything, she might just not be producing (or absorbing) enough growth hormone. The fix for that is pretty simple...injections of a synthetic growth hormone or other drug (that's my understanding). There could be something more going on, but it's very unlikely. Not to worry.