What should you do if your child is not tall enough?

Starting from March 1, the latest \”Growth and Development Standards for Children Under 7 Years Old\” released by the National Health Commission has been officially implemented. Compared with the previous version, the \”standard values\” for the height of children in most age groups have increased. For specific details of the new standards, please see → The latest children\’s height standard and weight comparison table 2023. Does your child meet the standards? As soon as the new standards came out, many parents became uneasy and couldn\’t help but compare their children\’s height with those of children of the same age around them, falling into a new situation. Round of \”height anxiety\”. According to reports from Jimu News and Beijing Evening News, many parents came to the hospital to inquire whether their children need to be given growth shots because they were worried that their children\’s height would not be able to catch up with the \”standard\” increase. Some parents hoped that doctors would directly give their children some height-increasing drugs. To avoid being shorter than your peers in the future. Dr. Lin Ming from the Department of Pediatrics of Wuhan Union Medical College Hospital pointed out that drug abuse has the risk of heightening. He has seen many cases where parents are eager to increase the height of their children and abuse drugs and health products, which affects the normal development of their children. Case 1 The father of the girl Tingting is 1.7 meters tall and the mother is less than 1.6 meters tall. According to the genetic target height formula, Tingting’s final height will theoretically not reach 1.6 meters. Tingting\’s parents were afraid that she would not grow taller, so they searched everywhere for medical advice and tried height-increasing remedies and health products that \”stimulated bone growth.\” Tingting grew 8 centimeters in one year after taking health supplements, and her parents were very pleased. But one day, Tingting\’s mother discovered that her 7-year-old daughter\’s breasts had begun to develop. A check-up at the hospital revealed that Tingting\’s gonadal axis had developed ahead of schedule and her bone age was already over 9 years old. Since I am far from reaching the height that matches my bone age now, the situation is even worse than before taking health supplements. If you do not seek medical intervention in time, you may not even grow to 1.5 meters in the future. Case 2: A young child, who was 8 years old at the time, was only 120 centimeters tall, which was shorter than most children of the same age. The parents were very anxious. They listened to a friend\’s recommendation and asked someone to spend a lot of money to buy three courses of so-called oral \”height-increasing drugs.\” In the first half of the year, the baby\’s height jumped up quickly, growing by 5 centimeters and then stopped moving later. The parents were worried and took their son to the Pediatrics Department of Union Medical College Hospital for examination. It was found that their son\’s bone age had reached the level of 11 years old and his epiphysis was almost closed, which affected his growth and development. Dr. Lin Ming regrets these cases: many parents have been deceived, causing irreversible harm to their children. Zhang Zhixin, chief physician of the Growth and Development Clinic of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, also warned about this phenomenon of \”spurring success\”: It is not recommended to use drugs and other methods to intervene in children with familial shortness within the normal height range of the population. In order to promote growth, parents take various health products, supplements, and height-enhancing drugs to their children, which may cause early development of gonads and early closure of bone age. Originally, girls can reach a genetic height of 1.6 meters, but careless use of drugs may eventually exceed 1.5 meters. No, some other drugs may also affect physiological safety. Zhang Zhixin said that under normal circumstances, boys\’ bones are completely closed at the age of 18, and girls are completely closed at the age of 16. The time from the beginning to the closure of bone age is the growth period, just like the construction period of building a building. If the bone age is closed early, it means that the construction period of the building is compressed. If you work overtime to build the building, then the height of the future child will be no problem. Otherwise, the child may not achieve the idealHeight, become \”tall children, short adults\”. There are also children whose bones close later and grow slowly. They may be shorter than others in childhood, but \”grow much taller\” in adolescence. The emergence of the phenomenon of \”tall children are short of adults\” and the early closure of children\’s bone age is probably the result of parents\’ excessive height requirements. Excessive protein intake may activate the gonads early, sex hormones accelerate bone age growth, children develop early, and the time to grow taller is shortened. How to treat the new standards scientifically? In an interview with the media, Xiao Fang, an expert in pediatric care at Wuhan Children\’s Hospital, shared with everyone how to judge the level of their children. The new standards implemented on March 1 were recently released by the National Health Commission, and the height standard values ​​​​for most age groups have been slightly adjusted. This is based on the results of a sample survey in 2015. Compared with 10 years ago, children\’s diet, nutrition, exercise and other aspects have changed significantly. The height standard is determined by randomly selecting 100 children of the same race, age, and gender and lining them up from short to tall. P50 means that the child\’s height is exactly at the 50th, which is at the average level. According to the new standards, children whose height is between P25 and P75 can be classified as medium; if their height is lower than P3, they are considered short, and parents are advised to take their children to a growth and development clinic to find out the cause; if their height is greater than P97, they are considered tall. Far beyond the level of peers, but we should also pay attention to check whether the child has an older bone age. What kind of children should see a doctor? On February 27, a piece of news from the Qianjiang Evening News became a hot topic: The parents were not tall and did not pay attention to the child\’s height. When they discovered that their son would only be 1.53 meters tall as an adult, they had lost the opportunity to intervene. Liu Hua, a child health doctor at Wuhan Children\’s Hospital, also encountered a similar situation in the outpatient clinic: parents thought that their children would \”grow later\” and waited until they were fifteen or sixteen years old before coming for consultation. As a result, when the bone age was measured, it was found that the children had no room to grow. At this time, increasing nutrition and exercise will have limited effect. Pay attention to the two rapid growth periods. Doctors recommend that parents record their children\’s height every year and pay attention to the growth curve, especially the two rapid growth periods: the infant period from 0 to 3 years old: the average length of newborns is 50 cm. Over time, your height will increase by about 45 centimeters. Among them, they can grow 25 centimeters in the first year and an average of 10 centimeters per year thereafter. Pre-puberty: During pre-puberty, a child will suddenly grow taller. Girls are mostly between 11 and 13 years old, and boys are mostly between 13 and 15 years old. During these two years, girls can grow on average 7 to 10 centimeters per year, and boys can grow on average 8 to 12 centimeters per year. Instead of paying attention to the \”increase\” in height standards, it is better to pay more attention to the longitudinal changes in the height of your own children, which can more truly reflect the growth and development of your children. Parents can pay attention to whether their children\’s annual height growth is within the normal range to judge their children\’s growth and development level; they can also help their children seize these two critical periods by adjusting their diet, sleep, exercise, etc. Once you find that your child\’s height growth is lower than the normal range, you should seek medical advice as soon as possible to investigate the cause. Obesity can also affect growth. With the improvement of living standards, parents are paying more and more attention to the nutritional level of their children., but some children eat well, move less, and are obviously overweight. If a child is too obese, the risk of accelerated bone age growth will increase, \”shortening\” the time during which the child grows taller, and affecting the final height in adulthood. The latest \”Growth Standards for Children Under 7 Years Old\” released by the National Health Commission not only includes height standards for different age groups, but also weight standards. Weight and body mass index (BMI = weight ÷ height²) are also important. BMI can reflect body shape and is used to determine whether you are overweight or obese. In this regard, doctors suggest that while parents pay attention to their children\’s height, they should also pay attention to their children\’s weight and monitor bone age regularly. Height and weight can be monitored every 3-6 months, and bone age, bone age and height can be monitored every 1-2 years. If they match, the child can grow taller and healthier.