This is for general information, not for anyone’s medical need.
I know a kid–tough little boy, always climbing and catching lizards. He is just 10, and not quite as tall as my 6yo daughter (who is utterly average in height/weight). His mom is only about 5’ tall, and the younger kids are on the small side, so I thought maybe the family was just short, but yesterday she said that he has kidney problems–polycystic kidneys, I think she said.
So would polycystic kidneys cause a kid to not grow very fast? Even given his family, he seems really short so I’m wondering if that has something to do with it.
Kidney problems can interfere with growth - one example of this is Gary Coleman, who does not suffer from any kind of dwarfism but did have kidney problems as a child.
A girl I grew up with had the same problem, and was quite short (her parents and brother were of average height).
I think she also had heart problems and, sadly, died sometime in her 30s.
Hm. OK, thanks for the information.
Kidney failure is a common underlying cause of growth retardation, for reasons that have not been clearly elucidated. Candidate reasons include abnormal handling of critical proteins, malnutrition, chronic anemia, resistance to Human Growth Hormone, a variety of problems with bone development such as osteodystrophy, and so on. In short, if the kidneys are screwed up, nearly every metabolic function is impacted.
The earlier an individual has kidney failure, the more potentially profound those effects are on growth. However it should be noted that kidney failure itself is quite a complicated topic, and problems can be related to both the filtration and hormonal functions of the kidney.
The commonest form of polycystic kidney disease is problematic later in life, but there is a form that can affect an individual from conception, so it can be a cause of renal failure in childhood. There are many other causes, of course.