As a mother, do you know if your baby’s height is within the normal range? Do you know how much your baby should grow each year from birth to adolescence to be considered normal? After excluding a series of factors, how should we take care of our baby in order to let him grow up healthily in life?
Every parent is always very concerned about the baby’s height, hoping that the baby grows tall and strong, but as a population, the height is balanced, all height standards are based on a normal population, the average height means that half of the people’s height is higher than it, half of the people’s height is lower than it, can not be forced.
We take the height data surveyed in the normal population by the percentile method, and those below the third percentile are called short in height. Among these short people, it has been reported that only 1% of them are growth hormone deficient or can be treated with growth hormone; the rest of them are diagnosed as “idiopathic short stature” after excluding a series of causes of short stature, which means unexplained short stature with factors such as familial short stature and delayed somatic puberty. The percentage of these children is more than 80%. In the management of the child health care system, doctors pay great attention to the height of these babies in order to achieve early detection and treatment.
Several items to monitor height
All babies are required to go to the child health clinic of the community health center they belong to for regular physical examinations and guidance on growth and development after 28 days of birth.
The main items related to height are height assessment and height growth rate calculation. Generally, a baby with normal growth rate will grow 24-25 cm in height throughout the year within 1 year old, 10-12 cm between 1 and 2 years old, and about 5-8 cm per year after 2 years old until pre-puberty. The slower growth rate is seen from the annual height growth rate, that is, 0 to 2 years of age is less than 70% of the above normal rate, after 2 years of age to the pre-pubertal development, the annual growth rate is less than 4 cm.
If the height of a child is less than the P3 value (which means that 97% of the normal children of the same age and gender are taller and 3% are lower), the initial judgment is that the child is short, but this does not mean that the child is sick, because 3% of the normal population is below this standard.
Common characteristics and causes of short stature
Why does short height and failure to grow taller occur? In fact, it is related to puberty, genetics and diseases.
1.Physical delay in puberty development
This condition is more common in boys than girls, which means that the height is normal at birth, and the growth rate slows down at the age of 1 to 2 years, and the growth rate is normal again after about 3 years. Height and bone age are 2 to 3 years behind normal, and pubertal development is more than 2 years behind. Boys can be as late as 16 to 18 years old, and girls can be as late as 14 to 16 years old. The accelerated growth rate of certain children after the application of growth hormone indicates a mild hypopituitarism, but it does not help the final height growth.
2.Heredity, familial short height
The growth rate of the child himself is normal, the bone age is also normal, the dwarf situation is not serious, and there is no delay in puberty development, only the parents’ height is short, which belongs to the family inherited short stature.
3.Low birth weight children have slow growth
These children are born at full term but weigh less than 2500 grams, also called full term small-like children, no family history of dwarfism, no endocrine abnormalities, growth rate is within the normal low value range, and bone age is normal or backward. Their growth hormone excitation test is normal, but there is an alteration of growth hormone secretion rhythm.
4. Systemic diseases or nutritional deficiency
Such as severe malnutrition, chronic heart, liver and kidney diseases, chronic diarrhea in infancy, etc. This kind of baby is not serious short, and the endocrine examination growth hormone is not low. After adjusting nutrition and treating diseases, height and bone age will have a chance to enter the normal range.
5.The influence of mental and social factors
Family environment, psychological pressure, etc., have an impact on children’s height.
6.Disease factors, pituitary dwarf
This is caused by the lack of growth hormone. The ratio of men to women suffering from pituitary dwarf is about 3:1. At the age of 2 to 4 years, a significant growth lag is observed, and the growth rate is less than 4 cm per year, but the limbs of such babies are still relatively proportional, only the face is childish and the abdomen is fatty, which is typical of this disease. In addition, delayed bone age often corresponds to height age, with delayed teething and tooth replacement and normal intelligence.
Growth hormone deficiency can also be secondary to congenital malformations (pituitary agenesis, cranial midline malformation), trauma, cranial infections, tumors, after cranial radiation therapy, etc.
7. Precocious puberty can lead to short height
Secondary sexual characteristics appear before the age of 10 for boys and 8 for girls. True precocious puberty is accompanied by accelerated growth and accelerated bone age.
True precocious puberty means early puberty and early maturation of sexual function. In girls, breast enlargement, armpit and pubic hair growth, menstruation, ovulation and fertility may occur before the age of 8. Boys have enlarged testicles, sperm production, penis growth, and erection from time to time before the age of 10, and a few have seminal emission.
In children with true precocious puberty, they start to be taller than children of the same age, but due to early closure of the bone marrow, they become short in adulthood.
Countermeasures to get rid of dwarfism
After a clear diagnosis, babies with diseases should be referred directly to a specialized outpatient clinic for treatment. And after ruling out various diseases, that normal children and babies with simple dwarfism should have to do the following.
1. Regular physical examination to observe the growth rate of height
If the growth rate of height is greater than 5 cm per year after the age of 2, we can rule out dwarfism. Bone age is then reviewed once a year.
2.Lifestyle, parental care measures
Parents should pay special attention to the following points when caring for their babies who are simply short.
Ensure sufficient sleep.
Strengthening physical exercise and outdoor sunlight exposure, etc., to promote their growth.
Pay special attention to balanced nutrition, but do not give your baby a lot of supplements just because he or she is short, especially some supplements for the elderly and women such as ginseng and royal jelly, which may contain hormones, etc., that may stimulate early maturation of children and cause dwarfism.
The baby’s height is something that parents should always pay attention to, regular medical checkups plus following the right methods, the baby will definitely grow as much as the parents want.