Does anyone have experience with a child that is both ADD and growth delayed? My 8 year old son is ADD and has been on medicine for about a year now. Independent of that, his growth has slowed serverely since the age of 2. After working with Endocrinologists for the past 5 years, they have finally determined that he is growth hormone deficient. He will begin injections to aid his growth soon. Does anyone know if there is some sort of link between kids with low growth hormone and ADD? It seems like too much of a coincidence to me, as he is very immature for his age.
My nephew has ADD & also is on growth hormone therapy. His doc is at Gillette Hospital in St Paul. It has done wonders as he is just about up to his age for height. He will be 16 in September. He is doing very well. His brother is also on growth hormone therapy but does not have ADD. He is also doing very well
I've worked with 2 companies that manufacturer Growth Hormones (Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly), and I've not known of any correlations, but we're only scratching the surface on what we know about the Endocrine system, in general. Your pediatric Endocrinologist would by far be the leading expert on the topic.
Most Endocrinologists belong to the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and American College of Endocrinology (ACE). You may want to check both of their websites.
I did a Google search, and all I could find were either untrustworthy sites or pretty old information (more than 5 years old). So, I went to Google.com/Scholar, and I found the following information in case you can find anything here. Just a warning, these tend to be very clinical publications vs. articles in more mainstream media:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=growth+hormone+add+ad...
Good luck!
No tie in our son's case. He was a 99th percentile child until around 2, when he decided he hated to eat. Even with his picky eating and later medication, he's still right in line with his classmates in height and weight.
You might check the archives of ADDitude magazine to see if you can find any information about a possible link.
I don't know of any known link between ADD and growth problems. I myself have ADD and stand at 5' 8.5", my son has ADHD and stands at close to 6' 4" and my daughter who had ADD stands at 5' 6" but may not be done growing yet. As far as the immaturity, that is a trait of ADD and ADHD. My son, at age 18, is finally mature to where he should be, it was rough going through his early teen years when physically, he was going through puberty well ahead of his classmates (he hit puberty at age 10) but emotionally is just now catching up. His therapist told me that immaturity is common in those with ADD and ADHD. You might try looking into resources for this subject and familiarize yourself with it as it will help you help your son get through to adulthood much more easily if you do. I worked closely with him and his therapist as well as his school to help him get through as easily as possible.
I have a 6 1/2 yr old daughter who is GHD and on meds, but no one has ever suggested that she is also ADD. I do know that I have nothing but good things to say about our endocrinologist and the meds that we are currently giving to our DD. She has finally started to grow more normally.
My son also has growth hormone deficiency. So far, no one has suggested he has ADD but he's only 6.
I suggest you join the "Magic List" - it's a Yahoo support group for parents whose kids are on growth hormone therapy.
I do believe this link between GHD and ADD has been discussed there extensively. Here it is: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MAGIC_list/
Ok, you may think I'm crazy but there is a book I think you should read. It's called Hypothyroidism Type 2 by Dr Mark Starr. I could try to explain why I think you should check out this book but I wouldn't do it justice. What I immmediately thought of when I read your post was the pictures he has in his book of kids who aren't growing then once treated shoot up. It has a lot to do with the heath of the parents before conception and also the child's diet. Again, you may be inclined to think I am totally off track here but I don't think you will regret checking it out. Here are a few links..........
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0975262408/sukii-20/
If you click on the amazon link then then click above the picture of the book where it says 'look inside the book' then go to the page that show the table of contents, then the section on symptoms. That's where it mentions kids, but you have to look at the whole book to see the pictures of the kids.
Good luck with your son.
There are homeopathic remedies that shift the issue of lack of growth and ADD. It is a very individualized treatment, which uses safe substances to trigger healing and balance at the root - naturally and permanently. I personally would not trust injections....which are also not able to address the cause of the issue.
Liz
