How can children grow taller if their parents are not tall?

It is said that a person's height is 70% genetic and 30% acquired. Some parents are not tall, or have a family history of short stature. It seems that no matter how much nutrition, exercise and sleep they get, it is difficult to improve their children's height. So, what should we do? Does it have to be like this forever? A child's height is determined by genetic factors, but acquired nutrition and fitness exercises are also important for a child's growth. So, let me introduce to you how children with short parents can grow taller. Let's take a look.

Familial short stature often has a cause

Having experienced the pain of being short, Mr. Zhao, who is 1.64 meters tall, really doesn't want his children to suffer the same pain. Finally, he married a wife who was 1.63 meters tall. However, it seems that the more you fear something, the more it will come true. My daughter was smaller than other children when she was born. Now she is 11 years old and is already a head shorter than other children of the same age.

"She is young now and doesn't care much about her height. When she grows up and encounters obstacles and is laughed at because of her height, she will definitely complain that she inherited the genes from my short father." Mr. Zhao said that in order to make up for the genetic defect of height, he and his wife have always paid attention to "acquired efforts": no matter how tired they are after get off work every day, they will accompany their daughter to run, skip rope, and swim; to ensure that she gets enough sleep for 8 hours a day, they even rent a house in front of the school; his wife also enrolled in a nutritionist training course, just to match nutritious three meals a day for their daughter; as soon as he heard that someone's child drank a certain oral liquid or wore a certain pair of shoes with good height-enhancing effects, he would buy them without hesitation.

However, all efforts were ineffective and Mr. Zhao became a little desperate: If parents are not tall, does that mean their children can only be short?

"In the past, it was believed that familial short stature related to genetics could not be cured. The only way was to maximize the genetic height through acquired efforts such as nutrition, exercise, and sleep, but it was still difficult for them to reach the normal average height. Now, studies have found that familial short stature mostly has causes, such as growth hormone deficiency, precocious puberty, etc. As long as they receive timely and reasonable treatment, these people can also grow to their ideal height." said Wang Wei, Ph.D., deputy chief physician of the growth and development clinic of the pediatric department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University.

If your child inherits the gene of short height, do relevant examinations early

At Wang Wei's suggestion, Mr. Zhao's daughter underwent a series of tests including bone age and pituitary endocrine tests, but her growth hormone secretion was not small. What's going on?

"Although this child's growth hormone is normal, the amount of growth factor synthesis is obviously insufficient." Wang Wei said that under normal circumstances, the pituitary gland will secrete sufficient growth hormone and synthesize growth factors. The main function of growth factor is to promote growth, and its amount determines the speed of height growth.

Many people with familial short stature have a hereditary growth hormone deficiency, which naturally affects the synthesis of growth factors and then affects their height development. For some people, although the secretion of growth hormone is sufficient, some of the growth hormone is inactive, which can also lead to insufficient synthesis of growth factors and hinder height development. Obviously, Mr. Zhao's daughter belongs to the latter.

"Whether it is a lack of growth hormone or poor growth hormone activity leading to insufficient growth factors, both types of familial dwarfism can be treated with growth hormone supplementation." Wang Wei said that a European institution once conducted an experiment in which more than 4,000 children with normal growth hormone but insufficient growth factors were divided into several groups for experiments. The results showed that those who used growth hormone for two consecutive years had an average adult height of 6 cm taller than those who did not take the supplement, and those who used it for three consecutive years had an average adult height of about 8 cm taller than those who did not take the supplement. In addition, adrenal hyperplasia and precocious puberty are also common diseases that cause familial dwarfism and can be treated.

The above introduces methods for children of short parents to grow taller. I believe everyone has already understood it. I also want to tell you that some children are not short and do not have problems with growth hormone or growth factor deficiency, but parents also let them supplement growth hormone in order to make them grow taller. This is very important and everyone must remember it.