Why am I shorter than my peers?

This is an automatically translated article.

1. The golden stages of the child's height development

First, we need to understand how many stages the child's height development goes through? Although, a child's height is partly determined in the genome due to the height of the father and mother, but many other factors also have a great influence on the height of the child in the future. In fact, the growth in height can last until the baby reaches 25 years old.
So when do children start to grow taller? Two extremely important periods for the growth of a baby's height are the first 1000 days of life (from the time a child is pregnant to 24 months old) and the period of puberty. When in the womb, the third trimester is a period of strong growth in weight and height of the fetus before birth. The age of pre-puberty differs between the sexes: 7-9 years old for boys, 6-8 years old for girls. If the child is provided with adequate nutrients, has a healthy living environment and is physically active, the child will achieve optimal height during these two golden periods.
Watch now: Nutrition helps children grow taller in the first 1000 days of life

2. The change in height of children through each stage

Next, we can find out how the baby's height changes through each stage?

2.1. Stage 1: the first 1000 days of a baby's life

Firstly, the first 1000 days of a baby's life has been emphasized by the World Health Organization as the golden period for height and physical development, because this stage determines 60% of the child's ability to increase height. Future. In the period of children under 12 months old, children reach the fastest development milestone compared to all other stages. The first year, the child can grow 25 cm, then 10 cm the following year. After 2 years of age, the growth rate is not too fast, only about 6.2 cm per year, bone density increases by about 1% a year in both boys and girls.
Although it is a golden period of physical development, babies have to go through important transitions in life such as adaptation to life outside the mother's womb after birth, transition to nurturing (breastfeeding) breast milk to solid foods, then gradually switch to eating meals with the family). These changes greatly affect children, not only the growth of height and weight, but also the brain and cognitive development of children, because at this stage, children are at risk of malnutrition. highest and susceptible to infectious diseases. Therefore, when planning a pregnancy, a woman needs a variety of nutritional supplements to achieve optimal weight during pregnancy (10-12 kg). Until the baby is born, parents need to pay special attention to the child's care and nutrition in the first two years of life in a scientific manner, regularly check the child's weight and height according to age, gender. calculated to promptly detect the status of underweight, lack of height.

2.2. Stage 2: Puberty

Second, the height growth of children at puberty has a dramatic increase in muscle, skeleton and sexual function. The rapid accumulation of bone mass related to the growth and development of height, accompanied by the participation of growth hormones such as: growth hormone GH, IGF-1, sex steroids, helps children to gain weight. 10-15 cm/year during puberty. Height growth peaks in men and women differ, with girls aged 10-12 years old and boys 12-14 years old. This rate gradually decreases as girls reach 15 years old and boys reach 17 years old. During this period, nutrition plays a very important role in the development of the child's body. The main nutrients for growth and development include protein, iron, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D, iodine and zinc. Many studies show that, when the body is properly supplemented with adequate nutrition, exercised in a healthy living environment, human height still increases at least until the age of 25 in women and 28 years old in women. in men.
Thus, the growth of the baby's height needs to go through a long process from infancy to adulthood. Stepping through any stage, parents also need to pay attention to care and provide reasonable nutrition for the child to develop his full height potential. Maybe at a certain time, your baby will not be as tall as his peers, but that doesn't mean he will be shorter than his adult peers.

3. Interventions to help children grow optimal height

Finally, we will learn what factors affect baby's height so that parents can take timely interventions. Despite going through any stage of height development, children need to ensure a "general formula" as follows:
Firstly, children need an optimal and balanced nutrition according to age Second, Parents encourage their children to participate in outdoor fun and physical activities, especially badminton, basketball, volleyball, swimming, which have great benefits for children's height development. Third, children need to get enough sleep according to age, absolutely do not sleep late after 22 hours because it affects the production of growth hormone. The height development of the baby is influenced by many factors, so it needs the attention and care of parents for a long time, combining many factors such as nutrition, exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Through the above article, parents must have understood why their children are shorter than their peers. However, if this happens, parents do not need to be too concerned, instead, parents can focus on taking care of their children, especially at the golden stages by taking measures to increase the height of their children so that they can grow taller. achieve optimal height and well-proportioned body.

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Note: This article is part of the Vinmec International General Hospital System's Awareness Program on Growth Retardation, with the support of Novo Nordisk