Spring is here, birds are flying, everything is reviving, and flowers are opening. Spring is here, and children love to play in the wilderness. Spring is also the best time of the year for children to grow and develop. When parents are concerned about their children’s height growth, they should not fall into some misconceptions.
One of the misconceptions is that children will grow taller sooner or later.
In our folklore, there is a saying: “Twenty-three, a scamper”. From a scientific point of view, only a very small number of children, because of the late development of puberty, may lead to after puberty, the growth of the body will accelerate, medically called “delayed youth development”. However, the vast majority of children will have a second growth spurt during puberty.
Boys in the testicular enlargement (11-13 years old) height began to accelerate growth, 1-2 years after the growth of the second peak, the average annual increase in height 9-10cm, boys in the whole puberty height can grow 25-28cm; girls in the breast development (about 9-11 years old) height began to accelerate growth, 1-2 years after the height growth of the second peak, the average annual increase in height 8-9cm, girls in the whole puberty height. Generally speaking, when boys are 15 years old and girls are 13 years old, their height growth can reach about 95% of their final height, and the space for height growth is already very small at this time. Therefore, both boys and girls, after entering puberty, if the height growth should be slow to consult a doctor, do not believe in the “scampering” “theory”, so as not to delay the growth of height, causing lifelong regret.
Myth two, is that health products can promote the growth of children’s height.
At present, a variety of height increase products publicity all over the place, and promises to take after the annual increase of 4 to 6cm, in fact, this height is the normal growth height of the child’s adolescent growth and development. There are many factors that affect a child’s height, but the most important ones are nutrition, exercise and sleep. Children only balanced nutrition, reasonable exercise, adequate sleep, even if not taking those height products can also grow taller.
At present, the more common height increasing products sold in the market are some health foods with lysine, calcium, zinc and other amino acids, micronutrients and vitamins as the main ingredients. In addition, some height increasing products also contain a certain amount of androgens, if children blindly take these height increasing products, may also make the child grow and develop prematurely, shorten the growth period, premature closure of the epiphysis, and affect the final height growth.
Misconception three, is that parents believe that the child’s lack of height may be caused by family genetic reasons, rather than due to disease.
Some parents are really not tall, so they think their children’s size may also be like them and not grow tall, in fact, some parents are not tall, but the child’s height will be very tall, this is because of the genetic mutation.
The most distressing thing for us doctors is that some children’s short stature is caused by certain diseases, but our parents don’t know this, and they just want to wait for their children to grow according to the natural law, which is not a scientific attitude. Among the children with short stature that I saw in the clinic last year, there are quite a number of children who do not grow in height because of diseases, such as tumors in the brain that cause the inability to secrete growth hormone, congenital ovarian insufficiency that causes the child’s height to grow and sexual stunting, and congenital or unexplained lack of growth hormone that causes the child to grow.
Therefore, parents should be alert if their children grow less than 5cm per year after the age of 3. They should take their children to a pediatrician or endocrinologist at a regular hospital for consultation.
In addition, parents should also know that 4 years old is the dividing line to determine whether a child is short or not, because, whether it is a boy or a girl, around the age of 4, the hormones related to growth such as growth hormone and thyroid hormone in their body have been basically formed, and diet and sleep habits are gradually formed, so it can be seen from the figure whether there are defects, and these conditions play a decisive role in future growth and development.