Children with short stature, precocious or early development, overweight and obesity …… are increasingly troubled by the various problems their children face during growth and development, but often struggle to know where they should go for help.
Growth is a sensitive indicator of a child’s health status, nutrition and genetic background, and deviations in height and height growth rate from the normal range may indicate some underlying congenital or acquired disease. Many parents have misconceptions in this regard, or they are not aware of the many aspects of their child’s growth and development that need attention and leave it to chance; or they find that their child is short and rush to the doctor.
Children with short stature, precocious or early development, overweight and obesity are all growth disorders. According to the reporter’s understanding, in a clinic in Beijing, there are 3,000 to 4,000 people attending the dwarf clinic and the obesity clinic every year, with the majority of patients attending the dwarf clinic. “Most of the children who come to the clinic are short in stature, and only a very small percentage have pathological causes of abnormal growth and development for extreme dwarfism.” Seventy percent of a child’s size comes from heredity, while the rest depends on nutrition and environment.
There are many reasons why children don’t grow. Common causes of short stature include familial short stature, somatic growth delay, growth hormone deficiency, congenital ovarian insufficiency, hypothyroidism, intrauterine growth retardation, and chondrodysplasia. In addition to parental genetics, the causes of children’s short height are closely related to the child’s environment and nutrition. To analyze the external causes of children’s short height, Li Hui believes that the main causes are over-nutrition, lack of sleep and environmental pollution. From the point of view of the short children attending the clinic, many children are fond of foreign fast food, soda and other foods, which to a certain extent lead to early developmental period of children, especially prone to precocious sexual maturity, while prematurely promoting bone development, resulting in early closure of the bones before the growth period and no longer grow. In addition, many children are under pressure from schoolwork and usually do not get enough sleep, which also has an important impact on height.
1, school-age children should be regularly monitored
A person goes through several different age stages from birth to adulthood, and each stage has its own different growth and development characteristics. Only by having a full understanding of the normal growth and development process of children and mastering the correct evaluation methods can we detect growth abnormalities in time and find out what shortcomings in their nutrition, environment and lifestyle can be corrected; or check whether there are hidden diseases and treat them. Parents should learn to recognize problems in growth and development and help their children to receive timely, correct and reasonable guidance and treatment.
As a parent, how can you initially determine your child’s development? Usually, the average height of the parents is the adult height of the child as determined by the genetic potential, also known as the target height. The following formula can be used to calculate a child’s target height.
Height of boy = (father’s height + (mother’s height + 13))/2 ± 7.5 cm
Girls’ height = ((father’s height – 13) + mother’s height) / 2 ± 6 cm
2.How to make your child reach the ideal height
It is the responsibility of parents to create a better growth environment for their children, to supply enough but not too much food, balanced but not biased nutrition; to let their children have enough exercise, enough sleep, keep their body and mind happy; to prevent and actively treat diseases. In this way, the growth potential given by congenital can be brought into full play to achieve their ideal height.
3. Pay attention to nutrition without partial diet
Some parents have a nutritional misconception that strengthening nutrition means eating more chicken, duck, fish and meat, and not eating or eating less food. In fact, the energy needed by the body is mainly obtained from carbohydrates, while protein can only be fully utilized by the body if it has sufficient energy.
Excessive protein intake, not only increases the burden on the liver and kidneys, easy to cause indigestion, constipation, but to suppress the appetite of children. Some children are over-nourished resulting in obesity, which can easily lead to precocious puberty and eventually short stature. Therefore, in order to ensure that the amount is sufficient, but also pay attention to the reasonable mix of diet and diversification, that is, coarse and fine, meat and vegetables, do not picky food, not partial food. Do not eat too much snacks and affect the intake of important nutrients.
4.One hour outdoors every day
Children and adolescents often engage in sports, can promote the growth of bones, so that the bones become longer and thicker, bone density increases. Regular exercise also makes muscle fibers thicker and improves muscle strength, speed and endurance. Exercise also consumes excess fat and prevents obesity during the rapid growth period. Nowadays, children generally do not have enough outdoor activities, do not fully enjoy the sun and fresh air, do not have enough exercise, which is not conducive to the growth of children.
5, sufficient sleep to ensure
In the sleep state, the secretion of growth hormone is about three times more than in the waking state, so ensure sufficient sleep is conducive to growth.
6.Actively prevent and treat diseases
Various acute and chronic diseases that cause physiological disorders can have a direct impact on the growth and development of children. Repeated respiratory tract infections and diarrhea can significantly hinder the growth and development of children. Chronic infections, chronic hepatitis, chronic nephritis, asthma, heart disease, anemia, etc. can affect height growth. Major diseases such as chromosomal abnormalities, endocrine disorders, bone and cartilage development disorders can make the affected children significantly lower in height than their peers, which is medically known as pathological dwarfism. Therefore, active prevention and treatment of diseases is of great importance for children in the growth period. Through early diagnosis and treatment, the growth damage caused by some diseases can be fully or partially restored.