How to predict your child's height

Parents often bring their children to the clinic. The main reason is that the children are shorter than the same age. They want to see if they can continue to grow taller? Or is there any way to increase their height? Some parents bring their children to the clinic and directly ask for bone age measurement. Do you know about bone age? Coincidentally, when I was planning to write a popular science article about bone age, another public platform published an article titled "Bone Age". After reading it carefully, I found that this article is a professional article and it is difficult for non-medical professionals to understand. In order to make it easy for everyone to understand, this article is completely for the purpose of popular science. If you need to understand more, please read professional books or consult professional doctors.

What is bone age?

Human growth and development can be expressed in two "ages", namely life age (calendar age) and biological age (bone age). The changes in human skeletal development are basically similar, and the development process is continuous and staged. Bones at different stages have different morphological characteristics, and bone age testing can accurately evaluate the growth and development level and maturity of an individual. It can not only determine the biological age of a child, but also understand the child's growth and development potential and sexual maturity trend early through bone age; bone age can also predict the child's adult height, which is of great help in the diagnosis of some pediatric endocrine diseases, the actual age of athletes to determine eligibility for competitions, and judicial judgments.

How to measure bone age?

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This is a more professional question. Doctors usually take an X-ray of the left wrist. Doctors use the X-ray to observe the development of the ossification centers of the left metacarpal phalanges, carpal bones, and lower end of the radius and ulna to determine the bone age. Please consult a professional doctor for specific judgment criteria.

What are the criteria for evaluating bone age?

In 2006, in accordance with the national standard management regulations, the "Maturity and Evaluation Methods of Wrist Bones of Chinese Adolescents and Children", which was revised on the basis of the research results "Chinese Wrist Bone Development Standard-Zhonghua 05", was approved as the industry standard of the People's Republic of China (TY/T 3001-2006), replacing the original industry standard.

What is bone age abnormality?

A difference between biological age (bone age) and life age within ±1 year is considered normal development.

The difference between biological age (bone age) and life age >1 year is called early development (abbreviated as: precocious puberty).

The difference between biological age (bone age) and life age <-1 year is called developmental delay (abbreviated as: late maturity).

Abnormal bone age is often an aspect of certain pediatric endocrine diseases. Many diseases will affect bone development, either advancing or delaying it, such as adrenal hyperplasia or tumors, Alrebert syndrome, precocious puberty, hyperthyroidism, ovarian granulosa cell tumors, etc., which will lead to an early bone age; while ovarian dysgenesis (Turner syndrome), chondrodysplasia, hypothyroidism, etc. will lead to a significant delay in bone age.

Can measuring bone age really predict height?

Yes, but it is not certain that the estimated height can be achieved, because there are too many factors that affect height. No matter which method is used, it is impossible to take all factors into account. Moreover, after each prediction, many factors such as nutrition, disease, environment, etc. of the predicted object cannot be predicted. Although these prediction methods have certain scientific basis, the error of height prediction is always inevitable. However, the trend reflected by the prediction results is not wrong.

What is the reason for short stature?

One is constitutional short stature, where the bone age is consistent with the life age, which is also considered normal development; the other is that the bone age is lower than the life age, which is an abnormality in growth and development. There are many reasons for this abnormality, which requires diagnosis and treatment by professional doctors. If you suspect that your child has an abnormality, please seek medical attention in time to avoid delaying treatment. Common ones include primary dwarfism, hereditary dwarfism, intrauterine growth retardation, and constitutional puberty retardation. Clinical identification is somewhat difficult. Determining bone age, predicting adult height, and combining medical history are helpful for diagnosis; primary dwarfism and hereditary dwarfism have normal bone age, and the predicted adult height value is low; the predicted adult height value of children with hereditary dwarfism is within the genetic height range; intrauterine growth retardation has a low bone age and a short adult height. Combined with medical history, it can be diagnosed in early childhood. Constitutional puberty retardation has a backward bone age, and the bone age is basically consistent with the height age, so the predicted adult height value is not low.

How to increase height scientifically?

Reasonable nutrition, moderate exercise, adequate sleep, eat more vegetables, milk and other foods to ensure adequate nutrition, participate in more sports such as skipping, swimming, playing basketball, jogging, running stairs, etc., and ensure adequate sleep. Except for short stature that really needs treatment, children of normal height are not recommended to use medication during the growth period. If you really think that your child needs to grow taller, you should go to a regular hospital's pediatric department in time for a doctor to determine whether artificial intervention, i.e., growth hormone treatment, is needed. Do not trust height-increasing drugs, height-increasing devices, etc., so as not to delay the best time for your child's growth and development.

Exercise can directly promote the secretion of growth hormone, and can also promote the secretion of growth hormone during sleep on the night of exercise. However, not all exercises can make people grow taller. Exercises that are conducive to height growth include: volleyball, basketball, football, ballet, aerobics, stretching gymnastics, skipping rope, and jogging. Exercises that are not conducive to height growth include: weightlifting, weight-bearing exercises, excessive exercise, and excessive exercise (marathons, etc.).