Tips to Help Parents Successfully Administer Growth Hormone Injections on Their Children

Tips to Help Parents Successfully Administer Growth Hormone Injections on Their Children

It is important to first understand the source of a problem before getting the necessary help and solution. If not, one might end up putting a square peg in a round hole and I believe you don’t want to be faulted in risking your child’s health.

Basically, growth hormones are protein hormones secreted by the pituitary gland in the human body. This pituitary gland is located deep in the brain just below the hypothalamus and it coordinates the activities of all the other glands in the human body. The pituitary gland, thus, produces the growth hormone which is responsible for building bones, muscles, and height. This hormone is, therefore, essential to the growth and development of the human body.

The problem begins when the pituitary gland does not secrete enough growth hormone to affect the required growth in a child. In this case, the child’s growth is delayed and his growth lags when compared to his peers. Parents need to understand that the secretion of these growth hormones needs to be balanced in the bodies of their children. Too much or too little is capable of effecting significant growth problems in the body of a child. In this case, it is insufficient secretion that causes short stature or dwarfism.

Having noticed certain symptoms in your child’s growth, the appropriate decision to make is to begin to treat the child with height injections. These symptoms include:

  • Impaired hair growth
  • A younger appearance among peers
  • Delayed puberty
  • Rather a short stature for age

This recombinant growth hormone (rGH) injection serves as a supplement for the deficient natural growth hormones in your child’s body. It is, therefore, identical to the natural hormones in the body despite being created in the laboratory. It may shock you to know that the actual cause of this deficiency remains unknown and it may be due to genetic conditions in some children.

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Doses are determined by the level of seriousness of a child’s deficiency and the doses may be administered by the parents or the doctor. However, height injections are administered as long as the expected growth is achieved in the child’s growth. So, be ready for a lengthy treatment as the growth may take a few years before the child attains his normal height.

Growth hormone injections are known to be painless and easy to give. Even children who are 10 years of age and above can easily give themselves. This does not override the importance of a parent’s supervision. However, for children below the age of 10, parents need to give the injections carefully following these useful tips:

  • Your child’s height injection must be stored in a cool place specifically a refrigerator. It must not be too hot or too cold as this reduces the injection’s potency. The refrigerator temperature should be between 36 to 42˚F.
  • If taken out of the refrigerator and left over the night, it can simply be returned into the refrigerator and reused.
  • When traveling, ensure to keep the injections in the cooler that has been provided for that purpose for ten hours. Afterwards, carefully place on ice with the growth hormone pens in a Ziploc bag.
  • You should also fix a specific time to give your child the height injections. It is advisable to do this at night within a maintained timeframe. It could be between 9 pm and 10 pm.
  • However, the time may be disrupted sometimes with a few hours earlier or later. But make sure the changes do not proceed at 5 pm.
  • In order to get the desired results at the appropriate time, do not miss giving your child the injection more than once in a month.
  • It is equally important to bear in mind the injection sites so as not to give your child the injection in the wrong place. Try as much as possible to use four out of the eight possible sites which should be shuffled in order to avoid scarring a spot out of repeated use. These sites include back of arms, top of the thighs, outside of the thighs, sides of the belly, and outer quadrant of buttocks.
  • In order to get an even rotation, you may need to keep the record on a calendar after each night.
  • You should also keep a record of the time of opening a new cartridge as well as the number of injections that have been used from each of the cartridges. Recording the time of opening helps to determine the expiry dates of injections.
  • Considering how much money is spent on purchasing the growth hormone injections, you should ensure that your child finishes up all the injections in each cartridge. This is getting value for your money.
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One cannot deny that keeping up with the treatment requires a lot of work from the parents. But not to worry, it is all for the proper growth and wellbeing of your child which is assured in your proper administration of the growth hormone injections as prescribed by the doctor.

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