Diet.
The first thing that many parents think of when it comes to short children is nutritional deficiency or “late growth”, but rarely do they think about whether there is a growth hormone deficiency or other diseases. Due to slow growth and relatively low nutritional requirements, most children with short stature do have a poor appetite (not directly related to “indigestion”, “spleen and stomach deficiency” or “micronutrient deficiency”). In fact, we often find that many children who used to have a small appetite grow significantly after they reach puberty, mainly because of the increase in their needs. In fact, nowadays, except for some long-term chronic wasting diseases or serious digestive system diseases, children who are short because of insufficient nutrition hardly exist anymore. Instead, over-nutrition is common. Mild malnutrition is the first thing that makes a child thin and does not cause dwarfism, while chronic and severe malnutrition affects height. There is certainly a difference between early and late development, but now children are generally earlier than the previous generation, and some parents even blindly think that their children are “late growing” when they have already developed early, which may delay the time of treatment.
For thousands of years, the majority of the country’s people have long been in a state of poor clothing and food, expecting fine skin and flesh and a plump body. Therefore, fatness and obesity seem to be synonymous with “health”. However, in recent decades, the rapid development of the national economy, the dietary structure of the population has undergone radical changes, and excess nutrition is becoming more and more common. Over-nutrition is becoming more and more common. By over-strengthening nutrition, some people are bound to pay a heavy price for some! Many adult diseases, such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart and cerebrovascular diseases, etc., may be related to over-nutrition in childhood. Overnutrition is also one of the main reasons for the current yearly increase in the incidence of precocious puberty.
Both children with dwarfism and precocious puberty should have a balanced diet, i.e. a reasonable mix of meat and vegetarian dishes and a balanced intake of coarse and fine grains.
Overall, overnutrition is more common in domestic children at present. Many parents, especially the elderly, because of their own failure to eat well in the past, now do everything possible to make their children eat more and better, always worried about the lack of nutrition in the formative years, and even try to supplement all kinds of health products, trace elements or vitamins, this idea is obviously wrong. Those who have been to Japan may know that Japanese adults often have only six or seven sushi for Chinese food, and Chinese students often do not have enough to eat when they first go there. But the Japanese do not appear to be malnourished, but rather the average height has been higher than the Chinese, and the proportion of obesity is also significantly lower than in other developed countries. In addition, although Europeans and Americans are generally meat-based (their obesity rate is also very high), but in China, except for some ethnic minorities, the vast majority of people have been vegetarian for generations, if now every day “big fish and meat”, there may be some people will have problems. Some parents mistakenly believe that “as long as the rice is eaten less, it is okay to eat more vegetables”, in fact, vegetables contain a variety of carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, the total amount of food, the amount of meat and vegetables and unhealthy foods need to be appropriately limited.
From another point of view, people also evolved from animals, foraging behavior is one of the “prime mover” of animal survival. A short period of moderate hunger will stimulate many physiological functions of animals (hungry tiger down the mountain why more ferocious is a reason), people are the same. Hunger when blood sugar drops, will promote the secretion of growth hormone, adrenaline and many other hormones (of course, long-term hunger is certainly not good). People also have liver glycogen, fat and other energy reserve mechanisms, will be released when hungry; long-term overfed, no hunger state appears, will not only affect the release of reserves, resulting in obesity, increased blood lipids, insulin resistance, fatty liver, etc., but also cause in special circumstances, hunger or disease tolerance is insufficient. Therefore, children are not required to deal with a state of satiety 24 hours a day, each meal, and not required to eat to ten percent full, a short period of mild hunger, more conducive to children to eat normally and develop good habits. Even in the days when there was not enough to eat, there was still the saying “To make a child safe, endure three minutes of hunger and cold”, which is the truth.
However, some parents, after discovering that their children are precocious, restrict their children’s diet excessively is not good. As a growing child, basic nutrients should be guaranteed. It is recommended to be able to stick to 1~2 bags of milk and 1 egg per day (regardless of the cooking method used, and regardless of whether it is consumed alone or by adding it to a dish or soup, as long as it is cooked), while other meat dishes need to be appropriately limited. Although milk and eggs are not guaranteed to be safe, too much restriction is certainly not beneficial.
For some fatter children, it is better to have some fruit or soup or something like that before eating and to slow down the pace of eating (although this is not a very reasonable way to eat). Because, our feeling of stomach fullness and hunger is not felt by the empty or full stomach, but by the high or low blood sugar. When the blood sugar is low, the stomach feels empty. If you eat too fast, although you have reached the normal amount needed, you will eat more because your blood sugar has not yet had time to rise to a normal level, and you still feel that you are not full.
Due to various advertising campaigns and other reasons, there are also often parents who believe that their children will be deficient in zinc, calcium and so on. In fact, in addition to the need for proper vitamin D supplementation during infancy to prevent “calcium deficiency” (the term “calcium deficiency” in children was originally incorrect, the main reason is not the lack of calcium sources, but the lack of vitamin D affects the absorption and utilization of calcium, the correct term should also be Vitamin D deficiency rickets), a normal diet does not cause micronutrient deficiency. On the other hand, since it is a trace element, more is never better! Too much can cause other hazards. I often give parents the analogy: “An egg, without any external factors, can hatch chicks, but if the nutrients needed for life are missing, the chicks will not hatch”. Other foods are also made of cells and have various nutrients, but the content and ratio of various nutrients vary from food to food. Please remember: medicine is better than food! Humans cannot synthesize their own proteins, and no health food can be comparable to natural food!
Many parents also like to go to the hospital to check their children’s “trace elements”, in fact, the blood trace elements, in most cases, reflect the nutritional status of these trace elements. For example, if calcium is low, it will mobilize calcium from the bones to the blood to maintain the level of calcium in the blood. The “gold standard” for diagnosing rickets is to check 25 hydroxyvitamin D, not primarily the level of calcium in the blood.
However, due to the rapid progress of urbanization in recent decades, compared to the “farming era” life, receiving sunshine time generally reduced, coupled with the current domestic education system, children and adolescents study too much pressure, outdoor activities too little, and environmental pollution also affects the time and quality of sunshine year-round. The latest surveys in China show that vitamin D deficiency is common among children, adolescents and adults of all ages due to insufficient sunlight (the main cause of calcium deficiency is not insufficient calcium intake, but vitamin D deficiency, which affects the absorption and utilization of calcium). Therefore, for children in the rapid growth period, especially in winter and spring, a daily supplement of about 400 units of vitamin D can be considered, either ordinary cod liver oil pellets containing 300 units of VitD, one capsule per day, or VitD 1000 units, one capsule every 2-3 days.
In order to prevent precocious puberty, some foods should be eaten as little as possible, such as too much animal foods, fresh bogs, fresh bogs (14) (13) frightened to steal caries. The child’s sexual precocity is caused by the improper storage of birth control pills. The mother’s excessive use of cosmetics to reach her child also has a negative impact.
Sleep.
As growth hormone is the most important hormone for human growth, the secretion of growth hormone is mainly secreted during deep sleep. Therefore, it is also important to ensure a more adequate sleep. School-age children generally need 8 to 9 hours of sleep a day. It is better to go to sleep earlier, but it is not necessary to emphasize the early or late sleep, as some people understand that growth hormone is secreted only at what time, but only in relation to the depth and total time of sleep. Modern people fall asleep later than in the past, but not for this reason shorter, but because of improved nutrition, timely and effective control of diseases, etc. improved.
Exercise.
Since exercise is also a way to promote the secretion of growth hormone, proper exercise is beneficial for growing taller, regardless of treatment. Exercise that is beneficial to growth is aerobic exercise. The definition of aerobic exercise is: ① medium intensity (too much exercise intensity, too little is not good, just stop when the heartbeat in 120 ~ 150 times / min more appropriate), ② regular, continuous exercise, ③ at least 20 minutes each time (for those who need to lose weight, it is best to reach half an hour each time), ④ as much as possible in the outdoors (everything grows by the sun, human growth as well. The reason why people in the north are taller than the south, there are climatic factors, but also the sunshine time factor. (The more northern, the less rain in the long year, the longer the total time of sunshine).
The way of exercise to jogging, slow jump rope, etc. is good. Ball sports, swimming, etc. can also be, only need to pay attention to maintain the continuity of the movement, the ball is not in the hand also need to pay attention to run. Some long, high-intensity, too strenuous exercise (such as marathons, etc.), may cause hypoxia, possibly anaerobic exercise, but is not conducive to growth.
Other aspects.
Children aged 2 to 14 years old usually need to be dewormed for intestinal parasites 1 to 2 times a year because not enough attention is often paid to personal hygiene such as hand hygiene. It is not necessary to detect worm eggs before deworming, as long as they are not sick, and commonly used deworming medications include “Enzyme”, “Intestinal Wormer”, and “Baota Candy”. When you are sick, try to go to the regular hospital in time. Some drugs such as adrenocorticosteroids (such as hydrocortisone, dexamethasone, etc.), quinolone antibacterial drugs (such as norfloxacin, ofloxacin, etc.) have the effect of inhibiting height, as little as possible or not.
Conclusion.
Although proper diet, sleep and exercise are beneficial to growth, do not be too superstitious about these aspects without treating related diseases. If you are found to have a disease related to short stature or precocious puberty, diet control and exercise are no substitute for treatment. Our adult height prediction includes a normal diet, sleep, and exercise, and is based on the premise of not having serious diseases! Diet, sleep and exercise should only be used as a complement to treatment, not to put the cart before the horse. In addition, following our “diet, sleep, exercise” requirements is not only good for growth, but also good for health, and a healthy growth pattern is more important.