<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Short stature is defined as height below the 5th percentile for age.
There is a standard growth curve showing a scale from 1 to 100 for each
age in childhood (a simple explanation:  e.g 25th percentile means that
this kid would be the the 25th in the line of 100 children starting from
the shortest one).  This curves provide the basis to determine whether a
child is short or not. Of course there are much more parameters used
during an evaluation.  A few example why a child can have short stature:
1) growth hormone deficiency 2) chronic organic disease (kidney, liver etc
3)  short only until the teenage age group when his/her height became
normal 4) has familial short stature when one of the parents is short 5)
has bone anomaly 6)  Has celiac disease It is known that up ro 10% of
short children may have celiac disease.

        If any child with known celiac disease does not grow and her/his
height is below the fifth percentile while is on a strict gluten-free diet
she/he should be referred to a pediatric endocrinologist for further
evaluation.

Karoly Horvath, M.D., Ph.D,
Center for Celiac Research
Baltimore