In fact, if children are adequately supplemented with calcium and balanced with nutrients, they will have all the “raw materials” needed to grow and be healthy. However, not all children are tall even though their parents take great care of them.
Stages of child’s height development
As a parent, everyone wants to give their children the best, creating all the conditions for them to grow tall and healthy. However, this sometimes puts pressure on the child’s development if the mother does not fully understand the child’s development stages, misses the golden stages, making the child’s height always stand still. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the growth stages of your child to have the right investment measures to help them have a breakthrough in height.
Fetal stage
This is the first milestone in the development of the child’s height that has received the least attention. At this time, the child’s height development depends entirely on the mother’s nutrition, so if the mother is provided with good nutrition during this period, the child will have a favorable starting height. Conversely, if the child is malnourished from the womb, it will be difficult for the child to reach the standard height later on.
Every day, a mother needs to get enough calcium 1000mg to ensure the health of the bone system for both mother and child, if calcium deficiency in the fetal stage can cause the child to have bone and tooth defects in adulthood. On average, the height of a newborn baby can reach 50cm, if the mother has a good diet.
Early life stage (0-3 years old)
The second milestone in the development of a child’s height is this stage. The height of the child at this stage is ½ of the adult height, that is, if the child reaches a height of 90 – 95cm, then when he becomes an adult he can reach a height of 1m80 – 1m85.
Accordingly, if the child is well cared for at this stage, the child can increase by 25cm in the first year of life, then the child’s height will reach 75-80cm. The next two years, the child can grow another 10cm. In total during these 3 years, the child has a chance to grow 45cm taller.
Puberty period
This is the final stage for children to increase their height, but often parents are less concerned because they think that their children have grown and can take care of themselves with appropriate nutrition.
The height breakout during this period lasted for 2 years. Girls start around 9-10 years old and end at 11-12 years old, while boys grow in height from 11-13 years old. At this time, the child’s height increases rapidly from 8 to 12cm, then the height still increases but not significantly.
The reason why children do not increase in height despite calcium supplementation
The reason why children do not increase height despite calcium supplements?
As we all know, at every stage of development children need calcium. This is the main component that makes up bones and teeth and is an indispensable substance in the process of blood clotting, metabolism, helps maintain muscle activity, ensures the communication of information between cells.
Therefore, calcium plays a very important role in the growth of young children. That’s why we should supplement calcium needed for children. However, many parents have provided adequate calcium for their children but their height is still not growing, so where does the cause come from?
Many opinions believe that the delay in height growth of children may be due to lack of calcium, inadequate nutrition or genetics. However, reality shows that the delay in height growth of children is not only related to the above factors but also due to many other causes such as: endocrine, chromosomal abnormalities, children with sickle cell anemia …
Endocrine factors (growth hormone)
Growth hormone deficiency is the most common endocrine disorder characterized by short stature. The frequency of growth hormone deficiency is about 1/3500 – 1/4000 children, milder form of growth hormone deficiency can be seen in 1/2000 children.
Growth hormone deficiency does not affect life, but greatly affects the appearance and life of children. This is the leading cause of growth retardation in children, stunting, and low self-esteem, which greatly affects children’s quality of life and work.
Chromosome abnormalities
The most common trait is caused by the loss of the SHOX growth gene. Growth retardation can occur from birth, and babies tend to be slightly smaller than average. However, the signs become more obvious by the time the child is 3 years old and become more and more obvious.
Without hormone replacement, children lose their growth spurts at puberty, and they continue to grow at a slow pace until the age of 20. Many surveys show that girls with Turner syndrome often have a height of about 20cm shorter than normal children.
Certain types of anemia
Typically children have sickle cell anemia, which is an inherited type of anemia. Normally, red blood cells are round, can move easily through blood vessels, help transport oxygen to parts of the body. However, when a child has sickle cell anemia, these cells turn sickle-shaped, becoming hard and sticky. These abnormally shaped cells may have difficulty moving in small blood vessels or may block the flow of blood and oxygen to parts of the body.
When the body does not have enough red blood cells in the body, the baby may not get enough nutrients to grow. That is why children with sickle cell anemia often have delayed growth in height.
The secret to improving height for children
Periodic health check-ups for children
It can be seen that all children from birth to before puberty show signs of growth retardation. Therefore, parents should pay attention to the growth process of their children at all ages so that they can take their children to the doctor if they see any abnormalities or suspect abnormalities.
For young children, parents should measure the child’s height every 3 months. Usually, if the child’s height is < -2SD (height curve is horizontal or descending) or the growth rate is 4cm/year and malnutrition has been excluded, the child may fall into the category of: slow growth in height and need to be examined soon.
Children who are screened for growth will be clinically examined, measured height and taken X-ray to assess bone age. From there, the doctor will advise on the problem of the child’s height development due to nutritional deficiencies, diseases, or other problems …
Scientific nutrition
Children’s meals are not only for satiety, in order for children to reach their full potential and full of energy, children’s daily meals need to meet the following criteria:
Enough protein: Protein is an indispensable element to help bones grow long. Protein contains amino acids needed for growth hormone and helps maintain healthy bones, muscles, tissues, organs, skin and bones.
Expert Catherine Berkey of Harvard University has studied over 5000 children, the results show that children with a high-protein diet grow taller than those with a low-protein diet.
Sufficient carbohydrate: This is a source of energy for activities and important functions of the body, constitutes cells and tissues, helps support the development of the brain and nervous system, regulates activity body movements…
Sufficient vitamins: Vitamins are essential for the absorption of calcium, especially vitamin D. If children lack Vitamin D, they can suffer from diseases such as jaundice, rickets, growth retardation… Foods rich in Vitamin D are oysters, cereals, fish…
Enough minerals:
- Calcium: Plays a very important role in increasing height for children, helping to form strong bones and teeth.
- Zinc: Supports energy production and increases cell production, thereby helping the body to grow taller.
- Iron: Necessary to form blood to help support cell growth.
In order to meet the needs of children’s height development, in addition to building delicious and attractive meals, it is necessary to ensure enough of the above 4 groups of nutrients. However, for parents who are too busy, it is not easy to design a nutritious meal as above. Instead, the mother can give the child more products to increase height so that the child is fully supplemented with nutrients.
Currently, on the market, there are many height increasing products that make parents hesitate when choosing. However, to ensure the safety of children’s health as well as bring high efficiency, nutritionists encourage parents to prioritize choosing American height increasing products.
Moreover, with products with ingredients that are NaNo Calcium, it is very good for the height development of children. This is a type of calcium that is prepared by Nano technology, creating micro-stimulating calcium particles. Thanks to its ultra-small size, it has good solubility, quickly penetrates the intestinal membrane and is absorbed in the maximum amount from the intestine into the blood. Therefore, calcium will not be left in excess in the intestines, so it will not cause constipation or kidney stones.
Reasonable movement
Mother should raise the baby like a tree, provided and absorbed enough nutrients, sunbathe and breathe fresh air. Moreover, children need to be active, run, jump, play or practice sports and motor games such as basketball, volleyball, skipping rope, swimming, cycling… at least 1 hour a day. Giving children time to run, jump, and play is one of the weapons to help them be active and reach the standard height at that age.
John Alen was born in 1971 and is a doctor in the healthcare and psychology fields with many years of experience. He is currently working at easyhealthylive.com, a leading health and psychology blog. Having studied at Y1 National Medical University named after IM Sechenov, John Alen is using his knowledge and experience to help improve the physical and mental health of people in the United States.
