Treatment depends on the cause of the problem. Growth Hormone is made by the pituitary gland located in the middle of the head at the base of the brain. Children with growth hormone deficiency usually have a dramatic slowing of growth and may be overweight for their height. They may have younger looking faces than their actual age, but have normal body proportions. Diagnosis is made with blood tests and treatment is the replacement of growth hormone by injection 3-7 times per week.
Treatment continues until the bone growth plates fuse indicating that growth is completed.
Most commonly, tall children come from tall families, are growing at the normal rate for age and show no signs of ill health. For those children in whom this is not the case, a physical examination and history may reveal the cause. Causes of rapid growth that may be abnormal include excessive growth hormone production, some congenital growth hormone production, some congenital genetic conditions or early puberty. Signals of these problems may included unusual body proportions, breast growth, enlargement of the genitals and axillary and pubic hair growth. All children should have records of growth kept with measurements every 3-6 months for infants and yearly for children over 2 years of age.