Stunted growth: what actually causes it? The most direct causes are inadequate nutrition (not eating enough or eating foods that lack growth-promoting nutrients) and recurrent infections or chronic or diseases which cause poor nutrient intake, absorption or utilization.
Growth problems can be caused by a number of factors, including genetics, hormonal disorders, systemic illnesses, and poor absorption of food. Causes of growth problems usually fall into the following categories: familial short stature, a tendency to follow the family's inherited short stature (shortness)
If the pituitary gland doesn't make enough hormones, normal growth slows down or stops. Kids and teens with GH deficiency grow less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) a year. GH deficiency happens if the pituitary gland or hypothalamus is damaged or doesn't work as it should.
This includes constant malnutrition, digestive tract diseases, kidney disease, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, or chronic severe stress. Any of these conditions can cause growth problems. Endocrine (hormone) diseases. Growth can be affected by some conditions that disrupt hormones.
Stunted growth is usually associated with poverty, unsanitary environmental conditions, maternal undernutrition, frequent illness, and/or inappropriate feeding practice and care during early years of life. As of 2020, an estimated 149 million children under 5 years of age, are stunted worldwide.
Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median. Stunting in early life -- particularly in the first 1000 days from conception until the age of two - impaired growth has adverse functional consequences on the child.
Doctors worry about height when it doesn't make sense based on genetics (for example, if the parents are both tall) or when a child's growth rate changes or “falls off their growth curve,” says Krishnamoorthy.
Constitutional growth delay (delayed puberty).
After about age 2 or 3 years, kids with constitutional growth delay will grow at a normal childhood rate until they reach puberty and undergo a growth spurt at a later age than most other teens.
Causes of faltering growth
Postnatal factors, such as nutritional or environmental problems, endocrinopathy or chronic disease may affect growth. In toddlers, growth failure is often the result of inadequate caloric intake but may also be the first sign of disease in an otherwise asymptomatic child.
Iodine Deficiency
Iodine is necessary for the thyroid hormones that regulate growth, development, and metabolism and is essential to prevent goiter and cretinism. Inadequate intake can result in impaired intellectual development and physical growth.
Most children who are shorter in height than their peers are growing at a normal rate rather than due to a medical condition. However, in a small percentage of short stature children, a child's growth delay or growth failure can be traced to a condition such as a hormonal deficiency or poor nutrition.
Boys tend to show the first physical changes of puberty between the ages of 10 and 16. They tend to grow most quickly between ages 12 and 15. The growth spurt of boys is, on average, about 2 years later than that of girls. By age 16, most boys have stopped growing, but their muscles will continue to develop.
Constitutional delay in growth and puberty (A child is short during most of childhood but will have late onset of puberty and end up in the typical height range as an adult because the child will have more time to grow.)
A common reason is familial short stature, which means the parents are short. Constitutional delay in growth and puberty is another cause, which means the child is a late bloomer. It's not unusual for someone who has been small all their life to suddenly have a growth spurt late in high school.
DNA determines a person's height. However, environmental factors, such as nutrition and exercise, can affect growth during development. As children get older, they need good nutrition and plenty of exercise to help their bodies make the hormones they need to grow.
If it's found that your child is growing or developing too slowly, the doctor may order tests to check for medical conditions such as hypothyroidism, growth hormone deficiency, or other things that can affect growth. If you have any concerns about your child's growth or development, talk with your doctor.
Delayed growth is poor or abnormally slow height or weight gains in a child younger than age 5. This may just be normal, and the child may outgrow it. The range of toddler development is from 1 to 3 years of age.
Being very short doesn't necessarily mean that your child has a health problem. He may have inherited his diminutive stature from one of his parents, or he may just be a late bloomer who will shoot up to a more average height at puberty, which may come later for him than for the average child.
What is delayed puberty? Puberty that happens late is called delayed puberty. This means a child's physical signs of sexual maturity don't appear by age 12 in girls or age 14 in boys. This includes breast or testicle growth, pubic hair, and voice changes.
The immediate and underlying factors causing stunting include infant and child care practices, hygiene and limited food security among the poorest households. It is inseparably connected to reproductive and maternal nutrition and is often determined in the womb by a mother's social status and level of education.
“Chronic stress inhibits the production of the two most powerful hormones that promote bone growth. “These are growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1. A lack of these hormones can stop growth in height.”
Most children who were stunted at two years—93%—experienced a positive change in HAZ by age five, that is, their relative height deficit was reduced (definition a).