Lada/All, My son is 3.5 yrs old and was born prematurely with severe intrauterine growth restriction so he was small to start with. He has not had the catch up growth that you would expect of a prem. He is about the height of a 2 year old and weighs almost the same as my 15 month old. He was provisionally diagnosed with Dents disease 12 months ago so we know he leaks high levels of calcium in his urine. Growth restriction can be a feature of Dents. His Endocrinologist has recommended growth hormone treatment which is experimental at best. Has anyone had any experience with the use of growth hormones on a Dents patient? What was the outcome? Any side effects? Cheers, CC

My son, who is now 20, was just diagnosed with Dent's. He was on growth hormone from ages 10 to about 14. He is now 5 foot 9 and we are thrilled with that. One side effect, however, was he was diagnosed with renal rickets, so be aware of that going in. I had to fight really hard with the insurance company about covering the hormones, however, so be ready for a fight.

Hi. My son is 18 and took growth hormones for 6 years (age 12 to 18). He is now over 5 foot 8, the tallest in our short family! He stopped taking the hormones last year only because he was leaving home for college and didn't want to do it himself but according to his bone age he still had room to grow, but is satisfied with his height now. Due to his condition, his kidney function has slowly been decreasing since he was diagnosed at three, but the growth hormones did not have any side effects that we are aware of.

Thanks all for the replies above. Your successes give us hope. CC