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Children growing taller every day are not only considered a joy for their parents but also a reflection of the child's development and health. Children's height is always changing, especially in the early stages of life. Therefore, parents need to pay attention to monitor the child's development including height to have an effective child care plan.1. The process of growing children's height
Japan - a country in Asia. Japan was formerly known as a small nation. But the physical development of the Japanese people now has improved significantly and markedly thanks to the National nutrition care program. Therefore, nutrition plays a very important role in the period of growth, especially with milestones: early life, prepubertal and pubertal.The child's height development stage is formed through three stages:
1.1 First stage- fetal stage During pregnancy (9 months) pregnant women should try to take good care of nutrition , ensure adequate supply of nutrients as well as micronutrients necessary for the fetus to develop and pregnant women also gain weight during this period from 10 to 12 kg, the new baby can reach the height of about 50cm when the baby is born. born.
1.2 Second stage - neonatal period When a child is in this stage, the first year of the baby grows 25cm, and the next two years after each year can increase about 10cm on average.
After a child turns 4 years old, the average height of a child increases by about 5 to 6cm per year. This period lasts until the child begins puberty.
1.3 The third stage - puberty During prepubertal and pubertal the first one to two years of this period children can grow in height at a rapid rate of about 8 to 12 centimeters per year if they well taken care of.
However, at this time, it is also impossible to predict exactly which year it is necessary to implement a reasonable diet for children. After puberty, the height of children slows down.
When a child is 10 years old, the height can be 80% of the adult height, and the adult height of the child is estimated by multiplying the height of the child at two years old by two.
When children enter the age from 25 to 30 years old, their height stops growing, and later on, the process of osteoporosis occurs rapidly, so the child's body in the future may be shorter but not taller.
Through the stages of the child's height development, it can be seen that the child gradually grows up and the growth rate in height slows down compared to the first years of life.
In order to meet the growth of children, especially in terms of height, parents need to pay attention to nutrition issues for children in the first years of life and always pay attention to the height of children at this stage. And many parents wonder how tall a 16-month-old is? to have a specific care plan to help the child develop comprehensively.
According to research and standards of the World Health Organization - WHO, the height of a 16-month-old child will be determined and divided by gender: the normal height of a 16-month-old girl is 78.6 cm and a boy's height is 78.6 cm. 80.2 cm. Based on these parameters, parents can check the child's development or timely detect some potential diseases that negatively affect children through these indicators such as nutrition-related problems. , overweight, obesity, malnutrition, underweight...
2. Factors affecting the height of 16-month-old children
2.1 Genetic and other factors Genetic factors often affect a child's height. However, this factor only accounts for about 23% due to the genes of grandparents and parents. In addition, the child's height also depends on other factors such as: Nutrition, exercise regime, sports activities, chronic diseases...2.2 Lack of nutrients during pregnancy The time a mother is pregnant and giving birth also determines a significant part of the influence on the child's height development. If during this period the mother is provided with all the necessary nutrients and even important micronutrients such as iodine, iron, folic acid, etc., the child can develop a good height from the womb. mother and the development process is completely favorable when the baby is born.
2.3 Diet during the weaning period Mistakes in raising children lead to negative effects on the development, especially the height of children. When babies start eating solid foods until 16 months old, their diet is quite special. However, if the mother only focuses on a high-protein diet, drink less milk.
At the same time, using a lot of carbohydrates but few vitamins and minerals has a significant effect on the height development of children. In the groups of vitamins and minerals in food, the components of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc... are considered as important factors determining the height growth of children. Therefore, parents should give their children a variety of foods from the time they start to eat complementary foods.
2.4 Living Environment The polluted living environment with the presence of many factories and factories makes children affected by noise, pollution, epidemics and acute and chronic infectious diseases or in In case of sick children, using high doses of antibiotics for a long time also harms the child's height development.
3. Common problems affecting height growth in 16-month-old children
3.1 Anorexia children Anorexia in children can cause children not to be provided with adequate nutrients from food, causing early malnutrition, affecting children's development when they are young. is still in the golden development stage.Treating anorexia in children both helps children avoid the consequences of this condition, and helps them keep pace with growth and development in height with their peers.
3.2 Children refuse to drink milk Children do not like to drink milk will happen two situations. Firstly, the child may not like to drink milk at all. At that time, parents need to encourage children to eat more foods made from milk such as: Yogurt, cheese, whey.... At the same time, in children's meals, they should use calcium-rich foods such as: : Crab, shrimp, shrimp, snail... For the second situation, the child does not like to drink powdered milk and only likes to drink fresh milk, you can create motivation and encourage the child to add the necessary amount of milk for the body. body.
3.3 Children with iron-deficiency anemia Children with iron-deficiency anemia: Parents should find ways to improve this situation by paying attention to feeding their children foods that contain a variety of iron components. blood, such as: Blood, liver, lean meat, fish, shrimp, shrimp, beans, green leafy vegetables and vitamin C in fresh fruits and vegetables, to help children absorb the amount of iron from food into the body.
With children not being exposed to the sun, it can make their body vitamin D deficient, which helps in the physical development of children, especially in height. Parents need to consult a pediatrician so that they can be guided on the best way to help their children supplement this essential micronutrient to help children develop more fully.
3.4 Children do not sleep well The quality of children's sleep also determines the growth of children's height. Children should sleep at least 8 hours a day so that they can have time to facilitate the pituitary gland to secrete growth factors during sleep.
In addition, at this age children need to add necessary micronutrients: Zinc, selenium, chromium, vitamins B1 and B6, ginger, acerola fruit extract (vitamin C),... to improve taste , eat well, reach the right height and weight, and exceed the standard, have a good immune system, strengthen the resistance to get sick less often and have less digestive problems.
According to leading nutrition experts, parents need to be calm and persistent when supplementing with nutrients for their children, even through eating or functional foods. In particular, the use of functional foods should choose those of natural origin that are easily absorbed, do not allow simultaneous use of many types or continuously change the types of functional foods. Besides, nutrition experts also emphasized on the role of biological zinc; Parents should learn and supplement zinc for children properly at the appropriate time, to avoid zinc deficiency affecting the comprehensive development of children.
In addition to zinc, parents also need to supplement their children with other important vitamins and minerals such as lysine, chromium, B vitamins,... errands.
To have more knowledge of raising healthy children, parents should proactively update useful medical information on Vinmec.com website and immediately contact doctors and experts at Vinmec when needing support.