Children's MAGIC Foundation

Growth hormone deficiency and all growth disorders are a reflection of children's overall health. Is your child growing normally? If your child does not have a diagnosed growth hormone deficiency or a specific syndrome, start researching here.

MAGIC is made up of more than 25,000 families who have been there. We fought to find answers for our own children's lack of growth. And because our children were "affected" with growth hormone deficiency and a variety of other growth disorders, we are passionate about getting information "out there" for other parents.

Major Aspects of Growth In Children (MAGIC) is made up of families whose children (and affected adults) have growth hormone deficiency or other medical conditions (listed on the left) which affect their growth. While growth hormone deficiency is the most commonly known disorder it is not the most common cause of growth failure.

Children fail to grow for a variety of reasons. Growth hormone deficiency is only one possible cause. Hormones such as thyroid, or insulin-like growth factor also play important roles in a child's growth. Sleep, nutrition and exercise are also important for normal growth.

If a child is growth hormone deficient or failing to grow due to an underlying medical problem, his or her visible growth failure means that other more serious (non-visible) things are going on inside the body. Those "invisible" factors are our focus and concern. Height (too much at a young age or too little) is simply something we can see to warn us that something may be going wrong. It is natures early warning signal- an alarm for parents to take their child to the physician.

Many conditions which interfere with children's growth are treatable. Insulin, growth hormone, thyroid hormone, and now insulin-like growth factor are medications which are as close to nature as possible. Children with a wide range of growth deficiencies (such as Turner Syndrome, Russell-Silver Syndrome, Intrauterine Growth Retardation - Small for Gestational Age births have had wonderful results thanks to growth hormone and other treatments.

Each week we hear from parents about the short people in their family, and this is absolutley a factor to consider. However, scientists have now discovered a few genes which are responsible for growth failure. Therefore, as parents of affected kids ourselves (and yes some of us are short adults)we always tell worried parents- the primary indicator as to if your child needs to be seen by a medical professional is how much he or she is growing each year!

Researching information about a potential or newly diagnosed medical problem such as growth hormone deficiency, insulin-like growth factor deficiency, Turner Syndrome, panhypopituitarism, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia etc. is always scarey. It is compounded when we are searching for information about our own children.

Goals of the foundation include: * help you learn about children's growth * provide support to those searching for answers about their undiagnosed child * provide information regarding IGF-1, Growth Hormone Deficiency, Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, Thyroid and all other growth related disorders. Call us today! Ph: (708) 383-0808.

Growth hormone deficiency is only one possible cause. Hormones such as thyroid, or insulin-like growth factor also play important roles in a child's growth. Sleep, nutrition and exercise are also important for normal growth.

For more iformation and to find way you can help please go to www.magicfoundation.org