Shanghai's first clinic to treat children's hormonal disorders including short stature, early puberty and obesity opened yesterday.

And one of the first patients at Shanghai Jiangao Pediatric Clinic was 12-year-old Bai Fengli, who was given free hormone therapy to increase her growth.

At just 1.29 meters tall, she is 26 centimeters shorter than her classmates at Nanqiao Middle School.

The girl, whose parents come from Shandong Province and run a fruit stall in Shanghai, is expected to grow six centimeters after three months of medication.

"Though the parents took her to local hospitals for her shortness in 2004, they delayed her treatment due to poor awareness about her disease and financial difficulty," said Zhang Zhiming, director of Jiangao clinic. "Early detection and proper treatment are the key to help children grow. So we also plan to launch public education to increase people's awareness on their children's growth."

About 1.9 to 2.4 percent of Chinese children are short, with local children's hospitals seeing about 2,500 short children every month, experts said.

"Short stature is not only about a person's appearance. Researchers found 52.05 percent of short children have depression and other mental problems because of their height," said Dr Shan Yuming from Huashan Hospital's hormone department.

"All kinds of children's growth diseases can be tough to deal with and influence their mental health," she said.

She added the incidence of children's obesity is over 10 percent in Shanghai. And about one percent of children suffer early puberty.

(Shanghai Daily September 19, 2007)