How can I maximize my growth potential during the rapid growth period of puberty? During normal human growth, there are two stages of rapid height growth – the so-called growth spurts: infancy and puberty. In the first year of life, height can increase by 25cm, in the second year by 12cm, and during puberty, a child can gain an average of 7-10cm per year, which lasts for about three years, with a total increase of 25-28cm during this period. These two periods is to determine the children’s height in adulthood is a critical period, but this period of the child’s growth is affected by a variety of environmental conditions, will ultimately affect the child’s genetically determined by the play of growth potential, in addition to the other two compared to the pubertal development period is more important, because when the baby when the growth of a person is affected, as long as the timely correction of the impact of the various factors affecting the height of height, and ultimately, the child there is enough to catch up with growth Time, and ultimately may catch up with partners of the same age, and adolescent development, the child’s skeleton has gradually close to maturity, the ability of adolescents to catch up with the growth at this time is limited, once you miss the golden period of height increase, it is too late to regret. So how can you maximize your growth potential during the rapid growth period of puberty and eventually reach your ideal height? Guo Qinghua, Endocrinology Department, Beijing 301 Hospital I. Adequate and balanced nutrition As the standard of living in the city continues to improve, the growth of the children appeared in two extremes, some “fat body fat”, and some “bone thin as wood”. Both are the manifestation of unbalanced nutrition, in the “growth period” will easily lead to children do not grow. Many parents think that children should eat more, eat well, will develop faster, grow taller. So often like to force children to eat this and eat that, make up for the east and west, digging to make children eat more of this and eat that, and even when the child appeared to be partial to food, refused to eat, parents and take wishing, cajoling, reprimanding, scolding, etc., to force the child to eat, the result is often lead to the child to produce rebellious emotions and fear, aversion to eating mentality, which over time can easily lead to malnutrition, so that the child in the growth period of children’s The result is that the child is often rebellious and has a fear and aversion to eating. As a result, when a child is partial to food or refuses to eat, it is not necessary to force him or her to eat. Parents must be based on the characteristics of the child’s growth and development, combined with the specific circumstances, scientifically formulated recipes and reasonable arrangement of meals for the child to establish hunger and satiety law, in order to make the child have a sense of hunger, should be done three meals a day at regular intervals, do not give snacks to fill up the stomach for fear of starvation because of a meal is not full. Sufficient sleep, regular life, more outdoor activities, such as playing games, walking, swimming, etc. will increase the child’s hunger. And for the child to create a good can stimulate the appetite of the child’s dining environment, so that the child in a happy mood, eat with relish. Don’t threaten your child with language such as “if you don’t eat, you’ll get sick and get an injection”, which will make your child fearful and bored of eating food. Also for the children who have fiddled with the food and do not eat, do not scold severely, but should be more patient to help the children to establish the confidence of eating consciously. In the adolescent development period to ensure that children’s growth and development of the basic principle is a balanced diet, in addition to ensuring that the amount of various nutrients adequate, pay attention to the rational mix and diversification of the diet, in the dietary structure, there should be sweet and salty, meat and vegetarian, coarse and fine. Eat milk, fish, eggs, nutrition, although good, but easy to constipation; eat vegetables and fruits, not only easy to hunger can also lead to malnutrition. All day milk sugar, chocolate, fruits, will disturb the hunger and satiety law, affect the digestive function, reduce appetite. Therefore, the diet must be balanced and not lose sight of the other. Children’s diet, protein should not be less than 20% of the total daily calorie intake, animal protein accounted for 1/3-1/2 of the amount of protein intake, eat more soy products, 13-18 years old, daily protein intake needs to be more than 80 grams. During pubertal development, the daily intake of staple food is not less than 500 grams/day. Daily calcium intake is about 1000-1200 mg, dairy products, fish, soy products are the ideal food to supplement calcium. Eat more vegetables and fruits as appropriate. In addition, it should be noted that do not use the adult color and flavor standards to measure and evaluate the child’s diet is good or bad. Second, reasonable sports exercise Under the premise of ensuring adequate nutritional supply, exercise is the most effective way to promote physical development and enhance physical fitness. Exercise has a positive effect on all body systems. Exercise can eliminate fatigue, make the mind clear and quick thinking. Exercise can enhance the function of the heart and lungs. Adequate oxygen supply and a strong heart are the important foundation of a healthy body for teenagers. The growth of long bones determines the height of adolescents. Exercise can significantly stimulate the pituitary gland to secrete growth hormone, which promotes the growth of bones. Exercise itself does not increase the genetically predetermined height, but exercise can promote the maximization of genetic potential. In addition, exercise can also enhance the body’s immune function, improve the resistance of foreign germs, exercise at the same time also sunbathing and air bathing, enhance the body’s ability to adapt to the surrounding environment. According to research reports, children who play sports are at least 2-3cm taller than those who do not. Exercises that are believed to contribute to height growth include bouncing exercises such as jumping rope and running that help the limbs to move, stretching exercises such as the bar, sit-ups, and gymnastics that help to stretch the bones, and whole-body sports such as basketball, volleyball, badminton, and swimming that help to stretch and lengthen the bones of the entire body. Teenagers are in the critical period of learning knowledge and college entrance exams, many children and parents often complain that there is no time for exercise, but as the old saying goes, sharpening the knife is not a mistake, most children and parents still do not know enough about the importance of exercise. In addition teenagers should choose sports according to age, interest, etc., in the safe premise of physical exercise. Third, adequate sleep According to the body research found to promote human growth hormone growth hormone secretion in the sleep state is about three times the amount of awake state. In clinical practice, it is often found that children who do not sleep deeply, are easily awakened or often dream, and have poor sleep quality tend to have slower growth rates. Sleep disturbance is often associated with physical discomfort or certain diseases, such as respiratory or digestive tract inflammation or parasitic diseases, but also with the children’s brain development is not yet complete, has not yet formed a regular work and rest time and with their bad sleep habits. According to a foreign survey shows that watching TV or playing games for too long can lead to insomnia or restless sleep at night, when watching TV for more than an hour a day, children can appear to toss and turn in their sleep, leg twitching, and some children can even have epileptic-like seizures. At present, clinicians generally believe that quality sleep can make the body and brain get enough rest, to ensure adequate physical strength, good mental state and appetite, coupled with the full relaxation of muscles during sleep, is conducive to the joints and bones stretching, which is conducive to the increase in children’s height. Therefore, some researchers believe that getting enough sleep is good for height growth. The amount of sleep needed per person can vary according to age, with newborns needing 14-20 hours of sleep, children between the ages of 1-6 years old needing 11-14 hours, 7-10 years old needing 10 hours, and adolescents needing 9-10 hours of sleep during the period of rapid growth. In order to ensure that children have sufficient and quality sleep, parents need to pay attention to ensure that the sleeping environment is quiet and low light, the room temperature should not be too high; to develop a strict and fixed work and rest time, which is conducive to the development of the children’s physiological sleep cycle; parents should take the role of a role model, to avoid staying up all night; do not eat too much before going to bed, and also to avoid drinking too much water, especially sweet drinks; should not be intense exercise before going to sleep; in the holiday season, especially watching TV, should be careful, and should be avoided, especially when it comes to the children’s sleep. On holidays, it is especially important to pay attention to the fact that the time spent watching TV or playing games should not be too long, and the time spent sleeping during the day should not be too long.