Authorities on child growth say that the lack of parental knowledge behind almost all height increase tragedies directly or indirectly affects children’s physical growth, with lack of bone age monitoring, precocious puberty, and overeating becoming the three deadly sins that cause children to be short.
Bone age monitoring should be done from birth to adulthood
In foreign countries, especially in Western Europe, parents often take their children to doctors for height; however, it is rare in China, and almost no parents know that their children need to be monitored for bone age as soon as they are born, which should be done once or twice a year and continue until adulthood. Through bone age monitoring, once a child’s growth curve is found to be downward, the cause should be found in time. Several points and periods are particularly important.
The first node is when the child is 2 years old, because this is when the first growth spurt ends, and the second node is before puberty begins, because the body is approaching its second growth spurt and bone age monitoring must be performed. Also, the two fastest growth stages are infancy (before age 2) and adolescence (10-15 years), when the child grows about 30-40 cm taller before age 2 and 25-30 cm taller during adolescence, and bone age monitoring must be maintained during these two periods.
Finally, parents must pay attention to the growth curve of their children from birth to adulthood. The child is constantly growing, and if the growth stagnates, or if the annual growth is less than 4 cm, or if it suddenly accelerates exceptionally, it is important to find the cause. In short, it is most important to monitor the bone age regularly to identify problems and solve them in time.
To grow taller, we must also prevent precocious puberty from appearing
Where the signs of youth appear before the age of 7, or the appearance of menarche before the age of 10 is considered precocious sexual maturity. Professor Ye pointed out that one of the direct consequences of precocious puberty is the early maturation of bone age. Medically, the bone age is also monitored to determine if it is precocious.
Therefore, to grow taller, children must prevent precocious puberty from occurring. And precocious puberty is deceptive, often precocious children are taller than children of the same age, but the growth period must end early, and when parents find that the child does not grow, the child’s bone age has matured, it is too late to increase height. Therefore, it is best to check the bone age of the child once a year, once found that the bone age growth is too fast, we must find the cause.
The problem is that precocious puberty is usually discovered by parents very late, when the child’s bone age is basically mature and it is very difficult to grow taller. Therefore, once precocious puberty in children is confirmed through bone age monitoring, medical intervention must be performed in a timely manner to delay bone age maturation and ensure continued growth of the child.
Finally, children’s shortage is a medical condition, to increase height must find the relevant technology to master the professional doctors or experts for correct diagnosis and treatment, otherwise it is better to listen to its natural.
Children can’t grow taller even if they eat too much
Children’s height is also directly related to sleep, the human body will be secreted by the pituitary gland from 23:00 to 1:00 am growth hormone, but if the body is awake at this time, growth hormone will stop secreting, so it is best for young people to sleep before 10:00 pm. In this way, the growth hormone secretion peak is just in time after one hour of sleep.
It is worth mentioning that a common mistake that many parents make is to always let their children eat enough, which will directly affect children’s growth, because when people’s blood sugar is low, that is, when they are hungry, it will objectively promote the pituitary gland to secrete more growth hormone and stimulate children’s bone growth. Therefore, after the child has eaten, do not feed snacks, especially those junk food, not only to prevent the secretion of growth hormone in the state of hunger, but also cause premature sexual maturity in children, so that the child completely become short.
Infancy: the development of eating skills and habits
While growth in infancy is not usually influenced by genetics, nutrition is a key factor in a child’s growth, and experts are very certain about the importance of nutrition in infancy. Infants gradually transition to childhood after 8 months of age, and failure to keep up with nutrition at this time can affect adult height. Such a delayed transition will result in a loss of their adult height. Therefore, nutrition during infancy is very important.
Countermeasures.
1, reasonable feeding, timely addition of complementary foods
Infants should add complementary foods in time after they reach 4 months of age, because 4-8 months is a critical period for infants to form the conditioned reflexes needed to swallow solids. To learn to eat, this eating skill is learned later, if after 6 months have not added complementary food, it is difficult for infants to learn the transition from eating liquid food to half solid food to all solid food, can not complete this transition in time, eat solid food can not swallow, easy to vomit, thus affecting the growth and development of infants.
2, eat everything, food as diverse as possible
People are used to characterize food, hot, cold, warm, stagnant, etc. As a result, many foods do not seem to be very suitable for infants. In terms of nutritional psychology, if the variety of food is too monotonous in infancy, the chances of partiality and picky eating will greatly increase in childhood. Therefore, food should be as diverse as possible, especially in infancy and early childhood, try to contact a rich variety of food, not only to ensure a comprehensive supply of nutrients, but also to prevent picky eating bad eating behavior later.
Childhood: 5-7 centimeters of height gain per year, precocious puberty should see a pediatric endocrinologist
In childhood, children can grow 5-7 cm per year after the age of 3. Whether it is 5 cm or 7 cm depends on a combination of genetic, environmental, nutritional and other factors. Therefore, during this “steady” growth period, parents should pay attention to their children’s annual height and measure it.
Measures.
1. Measure height once every 3-6 months
The growth rate of people is uneven, each person has its own characteristics, so too often to measure is not a scientific attitude, some parents measure the height of their children, this month grew 0.5 cm, the next month only 0.3 cm, it is anxious to find a doctor. In fact, as long as 3-6 months to measure once a year, 5-7 centimeters per year to increase the height of the “standard”.
2, precocious puberty should see a pediatric endocrinologist
The individual’s precocious sexual maturity and the group’s early development should not be confused. Therefore, parents should not think that their children are developing earlier than they should now. If girls show any one or more secondary sex characteristics such as breast enlargement, pubic hair and axillary hair growth before the age of 8, or the first menstruation occurs before the age of 10; boys show sexual development such as penis and testicles enlargement, pubic hair growth and voice change before the age of 9, then it is precocious sexual development.
Puberty: sudden increase in height after development
During puberty, due to the catalytic effect of growth hormone and sex hormone, girls can grow 25 cm and boys 30 cm on average. Parents should note that if a girl’s height is unsatisfactory after menarche and two years after a boy’s voice change, intervention at this time is no longer likely to be effective.
Countermeasures.
1. Concerned about the sudden increase in height after development
About a year after breast development in girls and before voice change in boys, height growth accelerates. At its fastest, girls can grow 8 cm per year, and boys grow 11 cm per year. On average, girls can grow another 5 cm after menarche, and boys can grow another 5-10 cm after their voices change. So throughout adolescence, girls can grow an average of 25 cm and boys 30 cm. This growth pattern, parents should have an understanding.
2, sleep, exercise can help grow taller
In adolescence, sufficient sleep helps adolescent high speed growth; exercise, especially jumping rope can significantly increase the growth rate of children (even after the appearance of menarche), but also can increase the duration of the sudden increase in height. Therefore, adolescence should pay particular attention to sleep and exercise, which will be important for the height of adulthood.
There is a pattern of growth in children
The height of the human body is determined by the growth and development of the bones. At the ends of the long bones, there is a kind of epiphyseal cartilage that is responsible for bone growth. The epiphyseal cartilage continues to proliferate during adulthood, and the bones continue to grow; after adulthood, the proliferation stops, and the size stops growing.
Bone age
Bone age is an indicator of development that determines a child’s final height. If the age is older than the bone age, it indicates that the child is slow to grow; if the age is younger than the bone age, it indicates that the child is precocious. Therefore, if you want to know your child’s growth and development, you should go to a regular hospital to have a bone age film taken. The doctor will determine the growth potential of your child based on the epiphyseal closures shown on the film.
Height growth pattern
The average height of a baby at birth is about 50 cm;
Within the first year of life, height growth is the fastest, averaging about 20-25 cm;
1-3 years old] average annual growth of about 8-10 cm, to 1 year old height is about 75 cm, 2 years old is about 85 cm, 3 years old is about 95 cm;
After the age of 3, the growth rate decreases gradually and grows about 5-7 cm per year;
After the age of 3, the growth rate decreases and grows about 5-7 cm per year; [Entering puberty] boys can grow 20-30 cm, girls 15-25 cm;
After puberty, the growth of height gradually slows down to a halt.
Seasonal changes
Children’s growth rate in the four seasons is not the same, the fastest growth is in May, an average of 7.3 mm, October growth
The slowest growth is in October, with an average of 3.3 mm. Therefore, April and May is the best time of the year for babies to grow taller.
For parents, mastering the pattern of height growth of their children can help detect abnormalities in their height at an early stage, so that they can take appropriate treatment or intervention measures earlier.
9 conditions to be concerned about your child’s height
After 20 years of working as a pediatrician, every time I take a photo of a child’s bone age that has closed or is about to close, I can’t bear to say, “Son, you’re not going to grow any more.” But then you have to say it. To sum up, children with the following nine conditions may face the problem of short height.
1. Familial short stature (i.e. parents with short height).
2. Children born with intrauterine growth retardation (full-term small children) or premature babies are smaller than normal newborns, and 10%-15% of them cannot catch up to the normal height curve after 2 years old.
3.The growth of height is less than 5 cm per year before puberty.
4.Shorter height compared with children of the same age.
5.Sexual development is too early or too late development.
6.Obese children.
7.History of breech birth, difficult birth, birth asphyxia, traumatic brain injury and other medical conditions combined with slow growth.
8.Children who have taken or have taken for a long time height-enhancing drugs, immune-enhancing drugs, glucocorticoids, kidney-supplementing herbs, combined with rapid sexual development and premature growth spurt, etc.
9.Children with hypothyroidism. Some children with congenital hypothyroidism develop before the age of 2 years, which can cause mental retardation if left untreated. However, the onset after 2 years of age usually shows symptoms such as growth disorders, constipation, anemia, low activity, and low appetite.
Many parents do not know that their children’s slow growth is also a disease, they either leave their children’s height to time, or spend a lot of money to supplement their children’s nutrition and use height increasing devices, not knowing that these blind measures often delay the treatment, or even counterproductive. We hope that parents will master the laws and common sense of their children’s growth and development.
Knowing the growth of your child
The first thing is to observe.
If you find that your child is growing slower and shorter than the children around you of the same age and gender, you should consult your doctor as soon as possible to find out whether your child is of average height or short height through your child’s growth scale.
The next step is to record the child’s growth rate.
If a child grows less than 5 cm per year after age 2 until puberty, he or she should seek medical advice. For growing children, parents should record how much their child grows each year. If there is no measurement and the child’s pants are not short for several years, there must be a problem as well.
The third is to pay attention to the child’s sexual development.
Early sexual maturity or early puberty can be accompanied by early bone age, which may lead to the phenomenon of “tall children” and “short adults”. The reality is that many children in elementary school are taller than their peers, and their bodies are stronger, so parents never think that their children will have height problems. But in middle school or high school, the child’s growth rate gradually decreases and he or she is placed further and further ahead in the class, and if he or she comes back to the doctor at that time, the child’s epiphysis may have closed or be close to closing.
In other words, the child’s undesirable height at the time of medical consultation may be his lifelong height.
The two main keys to growing taller: nutrition and sleep
The first treasure: pay attention to your child’s nutrition.
If you want your child to grow taller, you should ensure that your child has an adequate and balanced source of nutrition.
First of all, protein is the main raw material for growth and growth, should ensure a certain amount of supply every day, protein mainly exists in animal food such as lean meat, fish, shrimp and other seafood, animal offal, eggs, milk, soy products are also ideal sources of high quality protein, but early development of children should be supplemented in moderation.
Second, parents should provide their children with enough calcium to help their bones grow. Milk is the most ideal source of calcium, and it is best to ensure about 500ml per day; soy juice, shrimp and various vegetables also contain more calcium.
Third, a variety of vitamins and trace elements are also vital to promote growth and development, especially zinc, so children should be allowed to eat more fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, and eat some nuts to provide adequate vitamins and trace elements.
Fourth, rice and flour staple foods are the source of energy for the body and should be guaranteed to have a basic daily intake. Of course, fatty foods are also the raw materials of the body, should also be a certain amount of intake, but should avoid excessive fatty foods. In short, the diet should pay attention to the meat and vegetables, coarse and fine, food varieties as diverse as possible, not picky, not partial food, especially pay attention to eat less sweets, because sweets will affect the child’s growth.
The second treasure: sufficient high-quality sleep.
Growth hormone, the hormone that promotes the growth of the human body, is secreted about three times more in the sleep state than in the waking state. Therefore, it is best to go to bed before 9 to 10 pm and ensure that your child has 9 hours of high quality sleep each night. High quality means that your child’s sleep quality should be good and the deep sleep time should be long enough, moreover, the muscles relax during sleep, which is conducive to joint and bone stretching.