Many parents are more concerned about their children's height, and growth hormone, known as the "magic medicine for growing taller", has entered the parents' field of vision. Some parents blindly inject growth hormone into their children in order to make their children jump up more. Li Sujie, director and deputy chief physician of Pediatrics of the fourth central hospital, reminded that as a prescription drug, growth hormone has a strict scope of application. If it is not used properly, it will bring greater risks to children. What does a child's height depend on Genetic factors are one of the most important factors affecting a child's height. Usually, if both parents are tall, the child will also be tall; Parents are very short, and children are generally not too tall. Clinically, the adult height of children is often roughly predicted according to the height of parents. It is unrealistic for parents to expect their children to be very tall if they are short. In addition to genetic factors, height is also affected by many factors, such as nutrition, sleep, endocrine, exercise, disease and growth environment. For example, the height of parents is good, but the children's nutrition is unbalanced due to picky eating, which affects the growth of children; For another example, children with less sleep time and poor sleep quality will also be short. In infancy, feeding and disease are important factors affecting height. Less illness, adequate nutrition and balance help children grow tall. In childhood, nutrition, exercise and sleep have a greater impact on height. The psychological and social factors have an impact on the height of children after they become more sensible. For height growth, heredity is the internal cause and other factors are the external cause. When the child grows slowly, observe and record the child's height and weight growth, so as to judge what factors affect it, and correct these adverse factors one by one. Who is suitable for growth hormone Some parents say that their parents are tall, nutritious, exercise and sleep are also good. Why can't their children grow tall? If this is the case, you need to find a doctor to evaluate whether there are causes such as disease status or growth hormone deficiency. If the child has no disease status, you can evaluate whether she needs growth hormone treatment. Before starting growth hormone therapy, children need to be evaluated from three aspects: first, it is consistent with the diagnosis of short stature. Short stature refers to individuals of the same race, same sex and age whose height is 2 standard deviations lower than that of the normal population or lower than the 3rd percentile in a similar living environment; Second, analyze the causes of short stature; Third, determine that growth hormone is the main factor, or injection of growth hormone can benefit and the risk can be controlled. At present, the diseases that can be treated with growth hormone in the recommendations on the clinical standardized application of recombinant human growth hormone in pediatrics include growth hormone deficiency, chronic renal insufficiency before transplantation, idiopathic short stature, short bowel syndrome and so on. Every disease has strict diagnostic criteria. Even short children who meet the indications can only consider the application of growth hormone after a comprehensive evaluation by the doctor. Children who do not meet the indications do not need growth hormone. Can normal height hit growth hormone Some parents will ask, if the child is not short and the doctor's examination and evaluation are all right, they want to play growth hormone, OK? Doctor's advice: No, growth hormone can not be used for the treatment of normal height children for the purpose of improving their height. At present, the research on the safety of growth hormone is mainly based on children with short stature or disease status, and there is a lack of safety data for children with normal short stature or normal height; Growth hormone is generally safe, but there are still some adverse reactions. For example, growth hormone may promote the growth of existing or potential tumors. Some studies have proved that growth hormone will affect the sensitivity of human body to glucose and increase blood glucose, which is equivalent to increasing the risk of diabetes in children; It is necessary to closely monitor the side effects, regularly take blood tests and monitor the bone age, and often go to the hospital to increase the physiological and psychological burden of children; Short acting growth hormone needs to be injected every night, while long-acting growth hormone needs to be injected once a week, but the price is expensive. At present, there are few clinical data, and the safety and effectiveness need to be further studied; The price of growth hormone (short-term effect) is not cheap. If the cost of regular evaluation and testing is included, it will cost thousands of yuan per month, which undoubtedly increases the burden on families; Don't exaggerate the effect of growth hormone on height. If the test shows that there is no lack of growth hormone, the injection of growth hormone may not benefit at this time. (Xinhua News Agency)