Question on steroid use and childrens growth.

Hi, I'm new here. I have 3 children, 2 have asthma. I am curious if anyone else has children who are on daily steroid maintenance drugs, such as advair, and notice that they aren't growing as fast as their peers? Both of my asthmatics are short and skinny. My daughter has been on pulmicort and then advair for 8 years. My son has been on the same for about 4 years. I am over 5'7" and my husband is 6"1 but both of them are low in the percentile range for height and weight. My daughter only grew one inch from the time she was 10 till 12. Around December, without my knowledge, she would go in to do her meds and skip the advair. Amazingly, she shot up 3 inches since then. She has just recently started puberty, which could have something to do with it too. This raised her up to about the 20th percentile from the 5th. She is back on her advair so I guess we will see how it goes from here. My son however has now dropped from the 25th to the 5th in height, so they are going to monitor his height now. When I asked, the doctor said it is common for steroids to keep kids slightly behind their peers, but that the final height should be effected very little if at all. My kids aren't just slightly behind their peers, they are pretty close to the shortest in their grades. This wouldn't be an issue for me if my husband and I weren't tall.  Has anyone else noticed their children are tiny from being on advair or something similar?

My 12yo takes Advair, albeit sporadically and I always thought there was less of an impact on growth for the inhaled steroids than the systemic ones. But then again, I'm not a doctor. Turns out my son had short stature (3rd-5th percentile) due to a chronic digestive disease, and had to take oral prednisone for several months, but now that his disease is under control, he's starting to grow again.

If your children's heights still seem to have stalled after monitoring them for a few months, you might want to ask for an endocrinology consult to see if they are deficient in growth hormone, and also to assess their bone age and density. It's my understanding that the endocrinologist can be really helpful in assessing and addressing growth issues.

Good luck!

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gcvmom