Community Corner

Organization Raises Awareness of Children's Growth Problems

Plymouth Township family among those assisted by MAGIC Foundation, which marks 'Growth Spurt Day' today.

Jodi and Robert Ives’ daughter, Rachel, is just like any other healthy, active 8-year-old girl.

She boasts about how she can outrun one of her brothers as she plays with her three siblings in her family’s Plymouth Township home. But it wasn’t until recently that Rachel was able to start living a normal life, her parents say.

When the Plymouth Township family was living in Europe about four years ago, Jodi and Robert noticed their daughter wasn’t growing properly.

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“We started noticing when (Rachel) was 3 or 4,” Jodi said, that she was shorter than normal.

The family began looking for answers once they moved back to the United States.

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“We brought her back to the States, we took her to my pediatrician here and they did a referral to a pediatric endocrinologist,” she said. “We waited a year, then we came back and she was 5, we ran some tests and she was low in isolated growth hormone function.”

Her parents said they switched to another pediatric endocrinologist and, just short of her sixth birthday, they noticed her outward appearance wasn’t quite normal. Rachel started taking daily injections of human growth hormone and her body began to catch up with her age.  Now she stands at a healthy four feett, in the 25th percentile for children her age.

Nothing about Rachel's appearance would hint that anything had been wrong, that she has had grown hormone deficiency, or reveal what she had been through the past four years.

Rachel is hardly alone with coping with growth problems, however.

Finding a support group

The family has gained a support system in the Chicago-based MAGIC (Major Aspects of Growth in Children) Foundation. Rachel’s endocrinologist recommended the family attend the group’s convention in Chicago.

Founded my parents of children who have had growth hormone issues, the foundation raises awareness of growth issues, provides networking for parents and information about insurance coverage and changes public perceptions of human growth hormone treatments.

Jodi said human growth hormone treatment has developed a bad reputation because of cases of abuse by professional athletes to gain a competitive edge.

“For us, it’s a necessary medicine,” Jodi said.

The MAGIC Foundation was formed in 1989 by Mary Andrews and two other mothers of children with similar issues.

Being the pre-Internet days, Andrews said getting information about her son Deno’s symptoms at the time was difficult.

“There was so much unknown in terms of growth disorders back then,” she said.

After debating with her son’s physician for years, he finally underwent treatments and started to grow.

When her son was 4-foot-11 and was beginning puberty, doctors told her that was as tall as he would grow. She said she knew there still was more she could do, so they saw a doctor in Virginia who gave a treatment to stall the puberty and allow him to grow to his current height of 5-foot-7.

She said Deno, who is now 40, lives a healthy, active life with his family.

Andrews said the biggest problem is that there’s still many children out there being diagnosed too late who are unable to meet their full growth potential.

Raising awareness

Now the MAGIC Foundation is hoping to raise awareness and change some minds about hormone issues and human growth hormone treatments. Today marks Growth Spurt Day, where the foundation is encouraging supporters to post Facebook statuses and send tweets in an effort to change the public perception of these issues.

Twitter users can use the hashtag #growthspurt with messages about growth hormone issues. There also is a Facebook event to mark the day.

Andrews said her organization is anticipating an influx of phone calls today as word spreads about the cause. She said crews will be on hand to speak with parents, who may call (800) 362-4423 for information.

Andrews said it’s important to know that the treatments aren’t about keeping children from being short and that they have far-reaching developmental benefits.

“We’re not trying to make our children taller,” she said. “We’re trying to just get them in the normal range so they can live a normal life and don’t have any other health problems to go along with it.”

Is your child growing normally?

  • According to the MAGIC Foundation, healthy children grow a minimum of 2 inches to 2 1/2 inches each year (after the age of 2 and before puberty).
  • Follow the MAGIC Foundation on Facebook and Twitter.


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