If you want to grow taller

Recently, the number of children suffering from short stature is increasing.

• The improvement of eating habits due to economic development raised the average height of children, and as the standard of living improved, interest in height also increased.

Children of relatively short stature may be mentally withdrawn or marginalized, and even as adults, they may be disadvantaged in employment or marriage.

• Therefore, short children and their parents are very interested in the cause of short stature and whether to treat it.

◇Short stature = refers to cases where children of the same gender and age are about 10 cm shorter than the standard height.

• Also, under the same criteria, the standard of height is below the 300th percentile (within the 3rd out of 100) and when the person grows to less than 4 cm per year before puberty.

It is not possible to determine whether the growth is normal only with the height at any one time, and by checking the growth rate of how much it grows in a year, it is necessary to grow 5-6 cm per year from 3 years old until puberty.

• By judging the degree of skeletal maturity through X-ray imaging of the hand and wrist joints, the cause of short stature is differentiated, and the child's growth potential is evaluated.

If necessary, a growth hormone stimulation test is performed to diagnose growth hormone deficiency, and in the case of a woman, if Turner syndrome is suspected, a chromosome test is performed.

• ◇Children's Height Prediction = There are several ways to predict a child's adult height, and the easiest way is to measure the parent's median height using the parent's height.

Genetic growth ability can be roughly predicted by adding 6.5 cm for boys and subtracting 6.5 cm for girls from the average parental height.

• But these days, nutritional status has improved so much that they are often larger than predicted.

In addition, there is a method to predict using the bone age of the hand and wrist joint.

• ◇Growth hormone injection = It is very effective in the case of short stature due to growth hormone deficiency.

In Korea, insurance is available only for short stature due to growth hormone deficiency, Turner syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and chronic renal failure.

• As a side effect, it may affect glucose metabolism, so regular monitoring is necessary during growth hormone treatment.

It is best to treat it in elementary school before puberty, especially for women, since puberty occurs earlier than for men, so it is better to receive treatment and treatment early.

• When the growth plate begins to close, the therapeutic effect decreases, and when the growth plate is completely closed, it cannot be used.

◇Good food to grow tall = Milk and soymilk contain protein with high digestibility and absorption rate, and are helpful because they contain nutrients evenly.

Beans and tofu also contain good protein.

• It is good to eat fresh fish such as mackerel and tuna three times a week, and it is good to eat beef, pork, and chicken with vegetables after removing the fat.

Exercise promotes the secretion of growth hormone, but there is not much difference in secretion depending on the type of exercise, so you can do the exercise that your child likes, or that he can do comfortably.

• Recommend jumping rope, swimming, basketball, jogging, and stretching, and avoid extreme or weight-bearing exercises.

◇Precocious puberty treatment = A phenomenon in which puberty comes too quickly.

• As puberty has arrived early, the growth is rapid and it looks bigger than its peers in the early stages, but the growth plate closes prematurely due to excessive secretion of sex hormones.

As a result, they can grow more than 10 centimeters less than their original height.

• In Korea, if secondary sexual characteristics, such as enlarged testicles in boys before the age of 9 (3rd to 4th grade of elementary school), or breast lumps in girls, before the age of 8 (2nd to 3rd years of elementary school) occur, the central It is most likely precocious puberty.

In the case of idiopathic precocious puberty without a specific cause, the earlier the treatment, the better it is to grow taller.

• The key to treating this type of precocious puberty is to delay puberty to delay growth plate closure, and 'puberty inhibitory hormone' is usually injected once a month.

Treatment lasts until puberty and usually lasts for 2-3 years.

Best Regards By SAEED ZULFIQAR