Numerous scientific studies have confirmed that baby’s height development is significantly influenced by the seasons. According to statistics, the growth rate of baby’s height in spring is 2-2.5 times faster than that in autumn, and April-May is the peak growth period for babies. If you want your baby to seize the opportunity to quickly grow taller in spring, mom and dad must avoid stepping into these minefields, but also seize the opportunity to give your baby the best nutrition and care, so that your baby grows into a “big tree”!
Where is the mystery of baby’s growth in spring?
Traditional medical theory emphasizes that “spring is born, summer is long, autumn is harvested, winter is hidden”, spring is the season of growth of all things, the human body is no exception. In spring, the human body has a strong metabolism, blood circulation is accelerated, respiratory and digestive functions are strengthened, and the secretion of endocrine hormones, especially growth hormones, increases, creating golden conditions for children in the growth period. In addition, the UV content of the spring sun is the highest of all seasons. UV light is also beneficial to the growth and development of bones because vitamin D, whether in food or in human skin tissues, can only be absorbed by the body after being transformed into vitamin D3 by UV light, and then into biologically active hydroxylated vitamin D in the liver and kidneys, which can promote the absorption of calcium and phosphorus in the gastrointestinal tract and reduce their secretion through the kidney tubules, providing sufficient calcium and phosphorus for bone growth and development. The latter promotes the absorption of calcium and phosphorus in the gastrointestinal tract, reduces their excretion through the renal tubules, and provides sufficient calcium and phosphorus for bone growth and development.
Therefore, in order for babies to seize the golden season of growth, parents should strengthen care from nutrition, sleep and exercise.
Baby’s spring growth strategy: nutrition
Use the best food tonic
The baby’s diet can be made up of some “medicinal” foods, such as dates, mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, fungus and so on. These foods are rich in a variety of nutrients, while the taste of sweetness and calmness, moderate consumption, is a natural food tonic for the baby to strengthen the body, can improve the body’s immunity. For healthy babies, dietary supplements are the safest and most effective response to meet their growth and development. Only the weak and sickly babies can take reasonable medicinal supplements under the guidance of doctors.
Supplementation with calcium-rich foods
As babies grow and develop rapidly, their body’s demand for calcium nutrition increases accordingly. In order to ensure the absorption of calcium nutrients, in addition to letting your baby go outdoors in the sun more often, you should also pay attention to providing a diet rich in vitamin D, such as eggs, milk, animal liver, seafood and so on. Pay attention to restricting your baby from eating too much sugar or sweets, which can easily deplete the calcium and vitamin d in the body and lead to calcium deficiency.
Increase quality protein appropriately
The growth and development of babies increases at a faster rate, and the demand for high quality protein in organ tissues also increases. Therefore, the side dishes should increase eggs, fish and shrimp, chicken and beef, dairy products and soybean products appropriately than usual, and the main food should be more rice, millet, small red beans and so on. Special note: beef, mutton and other foods are warm and hot, should not let the baby eat too much, more easily digestible and absorbable fish and shrimp or eggs, eggs, meat, fish, try not to use fried, do not wash too much rice, but also should not be placed in hot water soaking.
Pay attention to the intake of vitamins and minerals
Babies have an increased need for vitamins, and if their intake does not meet their body needs, they are prone to “spring susceptibility”, such as frequent inflammation of the corners of the mouth, easy bleeding of the gums, and rough skin. Therefore, in addition to pay attention to the baby to eat more celery, spinach, rape, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower and other vegetables, should also eat more carrots, yams, potatoes, take your baby to the countryside when you can also pick some wild vegetables to take home to eat, such as water chestnuts, toon, alfalfa, etc. Main food with appropriate coarse grains and mixed grains, such as corn cereal and peas. Special tip: To attract the baby’s interest in eating, spring vegetables can be stir-fried, stewed, and also wrapped into wontons, dumplings and spring rolls. Vegetables should be cooked with a fierce fire and not for a long time to reduce the loss of water-soluble vitamins.
Provide the necessary amount of fat
Brain tissue contains two types of unsaturated fatty acids, which are the main tissue components of the brain, the lack of which will affect the baby’s intellectual development. Since these unsaturated fatty acids cannot be synthesized by the human body, attention should be paid to the intake from food. In the spring, try to use vegetable oil when cooking for your baby, and eat a diet rich in vegetable fats, such as walnut porridge, black sesame porridge, peanut porridge, etc.
Spring baby growth strategy: sleep
Don’t cover too much sleep in spring
Human sleep is divided into deep sleep and light sleep, infants and children sleep deeply and light sleep about 2-3 hours alternately. Adults can adjust themselves better in light sleep, but many babies can easily wake up from light sleep because of temperature, sound, bright light, diaper changes or inappropriate nighttime feedings. Spring in the north is often dry and temperature-changing, which is even less conducive to sustained deep sleep, so many children are still tired despite a long sleep.
Ensuring quality sleep at night
How long should babies sleep every day to be scientific? Experts say that a 1-month-old baby should get 9 hours of sleep at night, plus 7 hours of sleep during the day, ensuring 16 hours of sleep a day. As babies grow older, sleep time will be shortened in turn, and babies under 6 years old should also be guaranteed 9 hours of sleep at night.
Get your baby a healthy night’s sleep
Spring weather is changing, pay extra attention to the baby’s sleep temperature, if you feel the child’s calves are cold, should be covered in time to keep warm. The weather in the north is dry and babies are prone to fire, so parents should keep the humidity in the room and can use humidifiers appropriately. The room light should be dark when sleeping and avoid noise; meanwhile, diapers with strong moisture-absorbing ability should be used for babies at night so that they remain dry after wetting, which can also effectively reduce the interruption of babies’ sleep due to diaper changes.
Strictly control bedtime
It is important to go to bed on time every day. You can develop a good habit of sleeping at a fixed time for your baby, such as bathing, massage, storytelling, singing, etc. Developing a habit can effectively help your baby fall asleep. Be sure to ensure that you go to sleep before 10:00 pm. Because after 12 midnight, the baby will have a peak period of secretion of growth hormone, sleep before 10 pm, to about 12 midnight is exactly the state of deep sleep, can stimulate the secretion of baby growth hormone. In spring, children are sleepy, but don’t let them sleep too much during the day. Moderate exercise and sunlight exposure are beneficial to the secretion of growth hormone.
Baby spring growth strategy: exercise
The height of the human body is determined by the growth and development of the bones. At the two ends of the long bones, there is a kind of epiphyseal cartilage, which is responsible for the growth of bones. The epiphyseal cartilage continues to proliferate when you’re a minor, and your bones continue to grow; when you stop proliferating as an adult, your size will stop growing. Before the epiphyseal cartilage has stopped proliferating, regular and appropriate physical exercise can help stimulate the proliferation of epiphyseal cartilage. Therefore, for children and teenagers, physical exercise is the most positive and effective way to promote growth.
In addition, regular physical exercise can improve the body’s blood circulation, enhance the body’s absorption of nutrients and improve the growth capacity of bone cells; mechanical force can promote the precipitation of calcium in bone, making bones thick and solid. Investigations and studies by medical experts show that children who regularly participate in physical exercise are on average 4 to 8 cm taller than children of the same age who do not participate in exercise. Scientists recommend that adolescent children should exercise no less than one hour a day.
Generally speaking, the most effective exercise programs are jumping, running, touching, free gymnastics, playing basketball, playing volleyball, swimming, jumping rope and pull-ups and other sports. Running, jumping and weight-bearing exercises can mainly play the role of stretching muscles and ligaments and stimulating the growth of epiphyseal cartilage; pull-ups can stretch the spine and make the spine stretch as much as possible to promote the growth of spinal bones; when swimming, the forceful stretching of the spine, the action of stirring the legs and the buoyancy of the water are beneficial to the growth of spinal bones and limb bones.
Intense sports, such as competition or larger weight strength exercises, each exercise interval should be longer, while the total exercise time should not be too long, so as not to cause excessive fatigue; intensity of small items, such as slow walking, rope skipping, etc., exercise time can be relatively longer, so that muscles, joints and bones are fully stimulated.
It is worth noting that the human height is also affected by the endocrine. Therefore, adolescents should not exercise too much, so as not to affect sleep and disrupt endocrine. In addition, strengthening nutrition is also an important part of making the body grow taller. While strengthening exercise, it is necessary to supplement the materials for building bones – gum and inorganic salts – in a timely and adequate manner.