I’m 12 years old, and I’m only about 4 feet, 10 inches tall, and most of the girls in my school are taller than me. How can I be taller?

Your present height is a little above the 25th percentile for girls of your age, which means that on average three out of four of your school friends will be taller than you and one will be shorter. It also means that your height is comfortably within normal limits. However, if you have diabetes then you do need to find out from your mother or perhaps even from your doctor whether there has been any “falling off” of your rate of growth in recent months. If that is the case, you need to wonder whether your blood glucose control has been all it might be, and your blood hemoglobin A1c tests would provide the best index of that.

It might also be that you are not making enough thyroid hormone. This really quite common in girls with diabetes at around your age. It can be confirmed by a TSH blood test and is very easy to treat and correct.

Be sure to talk to the doctor about all of this at the next visit.

DOB