With the increase of economic standard and the pressure of employment and marriage, parents and teenagers are demanding more and more about their height. In an article about “the age of short fear”, it is mentioned that with the improvement of living standard, comes the arrival of “the age of short fear”, and more and more parents and children are caught in the distress and confusion about height. “In order to increase the height by a few centimeters, some people take the risk of spending a lot of money on “limb amputation surgery” and become crippled as a result.
So, how do children grow taller?
Why is there a growth retardation or even dwarfism? How can I tell if my child is stunted or short? When is the best time to treat growth retardation or short stature? How can I make my child grow taller scientifically? …… These are the key concerns of parents.
As we all know, growth and development is a characteristic of children, a person from fertilized egg to adult is a very complex process, influenced by many factors, regulated by their own endocrine system, in which growth hormone, thyroid hormone, sex hormone at different stages of independent or synergistic promotion of children’s height. The growth of human body is actually the growth of human bones. There is a kind of bones in human body which are hollow and round, called tubular bones, and at the two ends of these bones, there is a part of cartilage called “ossification center”. However, the human body cannot grow indefinitely. However, the human body cannot grow taller indefinitely. At a certain age, the cartilage cells will all calcify and stop dividing, which is called “epiphyseal healing”, at which time the human body will not grow taller. Therefore, for children with growth retardation, it is necessary to take a “bone age film” to understand the age of bone development.
Most children are able to grow along a normal trajectory under the regulation of their own endocrine system, while a small number of children have growth retardation or even dwarfism due to diseases, genetics and the surrounding environment. Since its establishment in 2004, the Growth and Development Clinic of the Endocrine Department of Zhengzhou Children’s Hospital has seen tens of thousands of children with growth retardation, of which about 3,000 cases meet the diagnostic criteria for dwarfism.
So, what are the conditions of growth retardation and dwarfism?
The average height of a normal baby is 50 cm at birth, and it can grow 20 cm in the first year, and 8-10 cm in the second and third years; the average growth in childhood is about 5 cm per year; puberty is another peak growth period, and the puberty period for girls is generally 10-14 years old, and can grow 10-15 cm; puberty for boys is later than that for women, generally 12-16 years old, and can grow 20-25 cm. Can grow 20 ~ 25 cm. If a child’s annual growth rate is <7 cm within 3 years of age, <5 cm during childhood, and <6 cm during puberty, it indicates growth retardation. When your child is in the bottom 1-2 in height in a class of about 50 students, it indicates that your child may have dwarfism. There are many causes of growth retardation or short stature, about 300 kinds, which can be divided into two categories: growth hormone deficiency and non-growth hormone deficiency, the latter includes malnutrition, micronutrient deficiency, familial inheritance, chronic diseases, congenital genetic metabolic diseases and endocrine diseases such as delayed hypothyroidism, congenital ovarian dysplasia and precocious puberty. Only by finding the cause and treating it symptomatically will it be possible to grow taller. For short stature, the younger the age of starting the correct treatment, the better the results. After puberty, the growth plate of the epiphysis ages and the growth space becomes smaller, so the effect of height increase is significantly reduced. If a child with growth hormone deficiency is treated with growth hormone replacement therapy from the age of 4, he or she can expect to reach a completely normal adult lifetime height. There is no panacea for short stature, and research has proven that there is no single drug that can make all short stature grow taller. For example, the internationally recognized growth-promoting drug, growth hormone, is only suitable for children with growth hormone deficiency and some children with non-growth hormone deficiency. Therefore, children with growth retardation should go to the pediatric endocrinology clinic of a regular hospital to find out the cause of the problem as soon as possible, rather than wait and see, or blindly use so-called height-enhancing products. Many parents have misconceptions about their children’s growth retardation, which make many children lose the opportunity to be treated and cause lifelong regrets. Common misconceptions are: ① Late growth theory: children to 23 years old and a surge, now a little lower fear of what? Our family is very tall, our children can still not grow tall? ③ parents are not high, the child will certainly not grow tall ……. In fact, “late growth”, that is, delayed pubertal development, is only seen in a very small number of people. The parents’ height has a certain influence on the child’s height, which is genetic, statistical results show that the influence of genetics on height only accounts for about 30% of the factors, the influence of the acquired environment is the main factor, therefore, the parents high children are not necessarily high, and vice versa. Director Wei said: she was most impressed by a 17-year-old boy from a secondary school in Zhengzhou, who was only 148 cm tall and came to the doctor with a thick checklist of his own. When he started to pay attention to his height, it was already too late. He said that if he could grow taller, he would die on the operating table. There are countless lessons like this. So, how to let children grow taller scientifically? First, balanced nutrition, that is, a certain amount of daily intake of protein (eggs, meat, fish, dairy), carbohydrates (noodles, rice, etc.), vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins and minerals, do not be partial, picky eaters, otherwise it can lead to a lack of trace elements such as zinc, iron, calcium, etc., directly affecting the growth and development of children. Among various foods, milk, sardines, spinach, carrots and oranges are the most nutrient-rich foods, try to let your child consume some of these foods every day. Second, to develop good eating habits. Chew slowly when eating, and avoid strenuous activities within 30 minutes after meals to help better digestion and absorption. Third, ensure proper exercise. Exercise helps children grow taller, research shows that: jumping rope, swimming, playing basketball or volleyball, jumping sports, cycling and other sports after half an hour, the body’s growth hormone secretion significantly increased, the bones grow fast. While long-distance running, weight lifting, high-intensity sports training, etc., but hinder the growth of children. Fourth, to ensure adequate, high-quality sleep is another important way to promote children’s growth. This is because the secretion of growth hormone starts to increase after one hour of sleep and continues at a higher level. In outpatient clinics, we often see children who are in their adolescence, due to the heavy curriculum after junior high school, sleep less than 8 hours, resulting in a slower growth rate, which affects the lifelong height of the child. Fifth, should maintain a happy mood. Family discord, poor relationship with classmates, teacher discrimination and other negative factors often make children in a long-term depressed state, affecting the secretion of growth hormone, which can lead to “psychogenic dwarfism”. Sixth, early diagnosis and treatment should be carried out. If you find that your child is growing slowly, you should seek medical help to find out the cause and treat it as early as possible. If you can pay attention to the above points, scientific growth is not an unattainable dream.