As a parent, do you know if your baby’s height is within the normal range? Do you know how much your baby should grow each year from birth to adolescence to be considered normal? After eliminating a series of factors, how should we take care of our babies in order to let them grow up healthily in life?
Common characteristics and causes of short height Why does the phenomenon of short height and failure to grow taller occur? In fact, it is related to puberty, genetics and diseases.
1.Physical delay in puberty development This condition is more common in boys than girls, which means that the height is normal at birth, the growth rate slows down at the age of 1 to 2 years, and the growth rate is normal again after about 3 years. The height and bone age are 2 to 3 years behind normal, and puberty is more than 2 years behind. The accelerated growth rate of certain children after the application of growth hormone indicates mild hypopituitarism, but it does not help in the final height growth.
2.Hereditary, familial short height The child himself has a normal growth rate, normal bone age, not serious dwarfism, and no delay in puberty development, only the parents’ height is short, which belongs to family inherited short height.
These children are born full term but weigh less than 2500 grams, also known as full term small-like children, no family history of dwarfism, no endocrine abnormalities, growth rate is within the normal low value range, and bone age is normal or backward. Their growth hormone excitation test is normal, but there is an alteration of growth hormone secretion rhythm.
4. Systemic diseases or nutritional deficiency Such as severe malnutrition, chronic heart, liver and kidney diseases, chronic diarrhea in infancy, etc. This kind of baby is not serious short, and the endocrine examination growth hormone is not low. After adjusting nutrition and treating diseases, height and bone age will have a chance to enter the normal range.
5.The influence of mental and social factors Family environment and psychological pressure have influence on children’s height.
6. Disease factors, pituitary dwarfism This is caused by the lack of growth hormone. The ratio of men to women suffering from pituitary dwarf is about 3:1. At the age of 2 to 4, a significant growth lag is observed, and the growth rate is less than 4 cm per year, but the limbs of such babies are still relatively proportional, only the face is childish and the abdomen is fatty, which is typical of this disease. In addition, delayed bone age often corresponds to height age, with delayed teething and tooth replacement and normal intelligence.
Growth hormone deficiency can also be secondary to congenital malformations (pituitary agenesis, cranial midline malformation), trauma, cranial infection, tumor, after cranial radiotherapy, etc.
7, precocious puberty can lead to short height boys before 10 years old, girls before 8 years old appear secondary sexual characteristics. True precocious puberty is accompanied by accelerated growth and accelerated bone age.
True precocious puberty means early puberty and early maturation of sexual function. In girls, breast enlargement, axillary and pubic hair growth, menstruation, ovulation, and fertility may occur before age 8. Boys have enlarged testicles, sperm production, penis growth, and erection from time to time before the age of 10, and a few have seminal emission.
In children with true precocious puberty, they start to be taller than children of the same age, but due to early closure of the bone marrow, they are short in adulthood.
Countermeasures to get rid of dwarfism After a clear diagnosis, babies with diseases should be referred directly to a specialist clinic for treatment. And after ruling out various diseases, that normal children and simply short babies should have to do the following: 1. Regular medical checkups to observe the rate of height growth Once every 3 months within 1 year old, and once every 6 months after 1 year old for follow-up, babies whose height growth rate is greater than 5 cm per year after 2 years old can be ruled out of dwarfism. Bone age is then reviewed once a year.
Parents should pay special attention to the following points when taking care of their babies who are simply short: (1) ensure sufficient sleep; (2) strengthen physical exercise and outdoor sunlight exposure to promote their growth; (3) pay special attention to balanced nutrition, but do not give your baby a lot of supplements just because your baby is short, especially ginseng and royal jelly, which are given to the elderly and women. (3) Pay special attention to nutritional balance, but do not give your baby a lot of supplements just because your baby is short, especially ginseng, royal jelly and some other supplements for the elderly and women, because they may contain hormones and so on, which may stimulate children to mature early and cause short.
The baby’s height is something that parents should always pay attention to, regular medical checkups plus following the right methods, the baby will definitely grow as much as the parents want.