How to increase the height of preschool children is one of the topics that nursing mothers are interested in. The fact that a child is tall or short is partly in genes, partly in nutrition, in sleeping mode, and partly in the working mechanism of joints. Therefore, if parents are short, their children can still develop outstanding height through proper nutrition, sleep, and exercise activities. With the topic “How to increase height for preschool children” today, please read all of this article.
How to increase height for preschool children
Nutritional components, mobility, living environment, and sleep… are important factors that determine a child’s height. Therefore, to increase height for children most optimally and effectively, parents should learn ways to increase the maximum height for children and can apply in cases where children do not have good height genetics.
There are three stages of outstanding height growth in children that parents need to pay attention to such as:
1. The period when the child is still in the womb
During 9 months in the womb, the fetus will receive all the nutrition from the mother. Therefore, for the best development of the baby, the mother needs to provide adequate nutrients for herself and the fetus through the daily diet. During pregnancy, the mother’s body can increase from 10 to 20 kg and the baby will weigh on average from 2.5 to 4 kg, height from 45 to 50 cm at birth. This is considered a very important “background step”, which greatly determines the physical and intellectual development of children in the first years of life.
2. Stage from infancy to age 3
In the first 12 months after birth, the baby will grow very quickly in height, on average, the baby increases about 20-25 cm, even taller. In the next 2 years, each year child will increase by about 10cm if well cared for with a balanced diet and a favorable living environment.
3. When children enter puberty
The age at which puberty begins for girls is 9-11 years old and for boys, it is 11-13 years old. During this period of puberty, the child’s body has strong physical and psychological development. In particular, children will skyrocket in height, on average, children can grow up to 8-12 cm per year with adequate nutrition, reasonable exercise, and a healthy lifestyle.
After puberty, the child’s body will still have a change in height but at a very slow rate, even no longer growing. Therefore, this is the last “opportunity” to improve height in children. Therefore, parents need to pay special attention to the child’s nutrition, exercise, and living habits in each stage of development, to help them achieve the ideal height.
Signs that your baby is starting to grow taller
Here are the “signals” that the child begins to grow in height, which parents need to “catch” immediately to help children improve their height and physique effectively.
1. Children crave food and eat more
If your child shows signs of asking for food, cravings, and eating more than usual, it means that the baby’s body needs “raw material” to develop the strongest height and weight. At this time, parents should give the baby enough nutrients to eat and add some beneficial ingredients for height development so that the baby grows in the best way.
2. Does your baby sleep or kick his feet?
Children in the stage of height development often fall into an active state in their dreams, such as dreaming that they are running, jumping, playing, etc., so they often have unconscious actions such as kicking or kicking their legs, and swinging their arms. . So, if you see your baby doing these things while sleeping, it means he’s entering a period of strong growth.
3. Baby often complains of foot pain
In addition to the cause of collisions and injuries while playing or exercising, when a baby complains of leg pain or numbness, it is also a sign that the body is growing significantly in height. When seeing a child with this expression, parents should not be too worried, because the baby’s body is in the phase of the fastest growth in height. At this time, growth hormone secretes more and has a strong impact on the joints. The joints that grow long may appear mild pain, and numbness in the legs, especially at night.
However, in case the child complains of a lot of pain, or continuous pain, parents need to take the child to the doctor to prevent the risk of calcium deficiency or having some bone and joint problems.
Factors that make a child short
Besides genetics that cannot be interfered with, many factors affect the growth of children’s height that most parents often ignore or are very susceptible to in the process of raising children such as:
1. Drinking too many soft drinks, carbonated drinks, and foods high in salt
The above types of water not only adversely affect health but also interfere with the absorption of calcium by bones, making bones weak and affecting height growth. Therefore, parents should limit their children’s use of these drinks and replace them with fresh fruit and vegetable juices that are both good for health and support better metabolism and absorption of calcium.
2. Infected digestive system
According to a study of infants and young children in four developing countries, children under 2 years of age with digestive problems such as diarrhea from 28 days per year will lose 0.38 cm by the time they are 2 years old. year old. When a child’s digestive system is infected, it will work weakly, affecting the ability to absorb and digest food. Children are very susceptible to anorexia, diarrhea, and malnutrition … making the child’s height always “stamped” in place.
Therefore, parents need to pay attention to personal hygiene and food safety to limit the infection of digestive diseases caused by bacterial infections.
3. Living environment
The surrounding environmental factors have a great influence on young physical development, especially height development. Children living in a healthy, unpolluted environment will develop more favorably than those living in underdeveloped, inadequate, noisy, humid, or polluted places.
4. Early puberty
Early puberty is one of the reasons for stunting height growth in adolescents. When children hit puberty earlier than their age, the body will secrete growth hormones to stimulate bone growth, making children grow up very quickly. However, the ends of the bones also harden very quickly, making the child unable to grow taller. Children with precocious puberty are often shorter than their peers.
5. Not taking good care of the pregnancy period
During pregnancy, the mother does not ensure her nutrition, leading to a deficiency of essential nutrients for the development of the fetus such as calcium, vitamins B, C, iron, and zinc… affecting the size and weight of the baby. As a result, some babies are born with low birth weight or grow shorter than their peers.
6. Sitting watching TV, playing video games too much
Many parents, because they want to coax their children to eat well, often turn on the TV or phone, or iPad to show their children. This inadvertently exposes children to technology at an early age, leading to the habit of being “addicted” to electronic devices. On the other hand, children sitting in one place for hours just to watch TV or play video games will affect the spine and inhibit the growth of height.
Therefore, parents need to train their children to sit in the correct posture to avoid curvature of the spine. In addition, children should be restricted from using electronic devices, and instead should encourage children to participate in outdoor activities, both to help children have fun and to supplement vitamin D to help improve health and support. significantly increased height.
7. Diet lacking calcium, vitamin D, MK7, zinc, vitamins…
Nutrition in the early stages of life has a great influence on the physical development as well as the physique of the child. If the baby is not provided with enough minerals such as zinc, vitamin A, and vitamins B1, B2 and B3 will
How to increase height for children properly?
Science has proven that a person’s height is influenced by factors: nutrition (32%), lifestyle (25%), genetics (23%), and exercise (20%). ). Thus, besides genetic factors that cannot be interfered with, parents can influence nutrition, exercise, and daily living habits to improve their children’s height.
Here are a few ways to increase height naturally for children effectively.
1. Pay more attention during pregnancy and postpartum
During pregnancy, mothers need to pay special attention to their nutrition, because when the baby is still in the womb, the weight and height of the child will determine a lot of the growth of the baby after pregnancy. at birth.
Therefore, before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and while breastfeeding, women need to have a reasonable diet, and supplement with necessary nutrients such as protein, iron, zinc, calcium, and acid. folic acid, and unsaturated fatty acids (DHA, ARA),… so that the baby can grow up healthy, and reach the standard height and weight while still in the womb.
2. Diet full of nutrients
Nutrition greatly affects the development, and height of children, and in each stage of development, the nutritional needs of children are also different.
Children’s daily meals should ensure full of the following groups of substances: protein (accounting for 10 – 15% of total energy), starch (accounting for 60 – 65% of total energy), and fat (accounting for 10% of total energy). ) and other essential vitamins and minerals. These food groups need to be included in meals in a balanced and varied way. Do not eat too much or omit any substance that can cause nutritional imbalance.
In the protein group, you need to change dishes continuously with meat, fish, shrimp, crab, eel, and tofu… In addition to 3 main meals a day, you should supplement your child with 2-3 snacks.
In addition, it is necessary to add nutrients to help develop maximum height such as calcium, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, zinc… and resistance-enhancing ingredients such as vitamins A, E, C, and selenium. In addition, it is necessary for children to regularly exercise, run and jump outdoors so that the body can absorb vitamin D naturally from the sun to help absorb calcium more effectively.
The need for calcium at each age is different, so parents should consult a nutritionist to supplement the appropriate amount of calcium for their children. Foods such as milk, fish, animal bones, crabs, and seaweed… are effective and safe sources of calcium. Supplementing calcium with drugs should be prescribed by a doctor to avoid the harmful effects of calcium excess.
3. Create scientific and healthy living habits
Besides nutrition, parents need to give their children scientific living habits to help them increase their height effectively.
- Limit children’s exposure to high-tech gadgets: The habit of using phones, watching TV, or playing video games for too long not only creates bad posture, hinders bone development, but also affects vision.
- Go to bed on time, and get enough sleep: The time when the bones develop the most is when the baby is sleeping soundly, especially from 11 pm to 3 am. This is the time when the pituitary gland is most active and secretes a large amount of growth hormone to help bones grow better. Therefore, parents should pay attention to letting their children sleep enough before 10 pm and sleep for 8 hours every night. To help the baby fall asleep quickly, the mother should ensure no light conditions, limit noise should use a mattress and pillow to help the baby have a comfortable sleeping position, wear soft, loose clothes, avoid using Use electronic devices before bed… to help your baby sleep better and deeper.
- Split meals: Instead of eating full at 3 main meals, you should give your baby a moderate meal and add 2-3 extra meals a day to activate the body’s metabolism, enhance absorption and Add more energy for children to have an effective day.
- Participating in physical activities: For healthy bones, exercise and sports are essential. Children who are used to a passive lifestyle, sitting in one place, and being inactive will inhibit the development of muscles and bones and affect the rate of height growth. Therefore, parents should direct their children to participate in fun activities, daily exercise is also an effective way to increase height for children.
- For children to participate in outdoor activities: Sunlight provides a natural source of vitamin D, which is essential for bone development. If the body is deficient in vitamin D, the bones will not be able to absorb calcium and will become weaker, and the height will also “standstill”. Therefore, exposure to the sun for at least 15 minutes a day is also one of the effective methods to improve height for children. Note, you should sunbathe at dawn or in the afternoon. Because these are the two most appropriate times of sunlight to help the body absorb the amount of vitamin D needed for the development process and minimize the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays on the child’s body.
- Living in the right posture: Daily living posture is also very important for increasing the height of children. The correct posture is to walk and stand up straight, to sit and learn to have a straight head and neck, and not to bend over or fall on the table.
- Creating the best living environment for children: Environmental and social factors have a great influence on children’s intellectual and physical development, especially height development. According to nutrition experts, children living in underdeveloped socio-economic conditions, polluted environments, and lack of clean water… are at high risk of malnutrition and stunting. Therefore, parents should create conditions for their children to live in a healthy environment with sufficient conditions for their comprehensive development.
On the other hand, parents also need to limit smoking, because inhaling secondhand smoke inhibits hormone secretion, affects bone growth and causes many disadvantages to children’s health and height.