Jonah

This is Jonah.  Isn't he cute?  He will be five years old in three weeks.  He loves science and robots and space.  He started kindergarten last month and loves it.  He has already gotten in trouble for talking during quiet times, but I'm too relieved that he's talking to the other kids to care.  He is the little brother to fifteen-year-old Mikaela and big brother to one-year-old Ryan.  He's generally sweet and polite, and he's sooooo smart.  He doesn't always listen, he whines sometimes, and he still puts everything in his mouth.  He's a pretty normal kid (besides that "exceptionally cute"' thing), except that he is approximately 38 inches tall.  According to the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics, his height is hovering around the first percentile for his age. 

Right now, Jonah doesn't seem to care that he's shorter than everybody else.  When you ask him how he feels to be smaller than the other kids, he answers, "it feels smaller."  If you ask him if it feels good or bad, he says it feels okay.  He's the shortest one in his kindergarten class, he was the shortest one in his preschool class, and on his tee ball team.  He is also the shortest of his playdate group, despite being the oldest.  Jonah started kindergarten wearing 3T clothes and sitting in a car seat with a five-point-harness. He has been bullied by toddlers and little girls love to lead him around by the hand like he's a baby.  The problem is not that he's shorter than everybody else, it's how significantly shorter he is.

After a physical exam, blood tests and bone age xrays, Jonah was diagnosed with Idiopathic Short Stature (ISS) by a pediatric endocrinologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  ISS is defined as having a height significantly shorter than most of the population with no known cause, a poor adult height prediction (under 5'4" for men) and no detectable cause.  One possible theory a nurse once told me is that Jonah may be producing sufficient growth hormone, but his body is rejecting it.  Up until last week, Jonah had been well below the curve on the growth chart but his rate of growth had been good.  At our last appointment, we found that his rate of growth has started to slow down.  

We have been tracking his growth for over a year, and have finally decided to begin treatment.  I am hoping to keep up with the process here so that we can share his journey with our friends and family, and maybe even others who have children with ISS.  Last week, our endocrinologist did a full blood panel to establish baseline measurements and will call us with results and information on submitting treatment options to our insurance company.  Keep your fingers crossed and we'll keep you posted!  Hopefully, we'll be inching up soon!