Carter's Blood Results

Hello family and friends,

So some of you know that at the urging of Carter's pediatrician we took him to a pediatric endocrinologist in Portland to see if there is a significant cause for Carter's shortness/slow growth. The specialist talked to us about kids that grow slow and assured us that he would probably just peak a little later in life than his peers. He also ordered a blood draw to rule out other causes for slow growth such as low thyroid, celiac (gluten allergy), and low growth hormone. He said the results would be back by 2 weeks and so we waited. Well, after 2 weeks we didn't hear from him so I gave the hospital a call and finally got a return call yesterday evening. Carter's thyroid levels were normal and he doesn't have celiac but they did see that he is deficient in his growth hormone. So, we are left with a bit of a dilemma...whether or not to give Carter hormone treatment. Doing research online has come up with lots of varying opinions. I asked the dr. what are the negative outcomes for having low growth hormone and not treating it. He said that it can cause weaker bones and also can cause you to be overweight later in life due to your body preferring fat to muscle. Other issues are high cholesterol and heart disease. Now, Carter is still young and we have plenty of time to decide what to do and to also wait and see what his body does as he gets older. There is a chance that his low growth hormone level is caused by his diet. Some kids that don't eat well will have low hormone levels. Carter eats pretty well but as most toddlers his age, there are areas where he definitely could do better. The dr. said we can bring him back in about 6 months, check his growth, and talk some more. They would probably check his levels again in about a year. If we do decide to go the route of hormone treatment Carter would have to sit through a 3 hour "stress" test to prove to the insurance company that he indeed needs hormone treatment. So many decisions!

There is a lot of debate about growth hormones. As with any treatment there are benefits and of course side affects. These are things we really have to do our research on and take a good look. We personally aren't worried about him being short. We ourselves are not tall people and expect our kids to probably be average or below average. We're okay with that. But we don't want Carter to face more health problems in the future or have weak bones due to low growth hormone. We just have to see if the benefits are enough to risk the side affects. Not an easy decision. Not something we as parents like to face. We would really appreciate your prayers as we try to decide what to do. Its not something we have to decide right away but it could be in our future.

Charlie and Megan