“How tall will my child be?” This is the most frequent question young parents pose to their paediatricians. Another group that worries about height is made up of anxious teenagers, especially boys who are shorter than their peers.
It isn’t always possible to predict how tall someone will grow, because height depends on several factors, such as:
Heredity: Tall parents have tall children. But this need not always be true, just as short parents don’t always have short children. It has been noticed, especially in developing countries like India, that children are often quite taller than their parents.
Nutrition: This is crucial, especially in infancy and in adolescence, when growth spurts occur. This is why teenagers should avoid going on diets that deprive the body of essential nutrients. Growing children need to eat!
Hormonal changes: A complex interplay of hormones such as the growth, thyroid and sex hormones among others results in
sudden spurts of height at various ages.
Psychological factors: Children deprived of affection or subjected to abuse of any kind tend to become stunted. Catch-up growth occurs if this environment is successfully changed to a non-hostile one.
There are several phases of growth in a human being. Height is definitely not gained uniformly.
Height gain is rapid in infancy. A new born trebles its weight and increases its height by 50 per cent within the first year. The height of a two-year-old child is approximately half the expected adult height of the child.
It plateaus in early childhood, where the norm is growth of 5 cm a year (about 2 inches). Weight increases by 2 kg a year.
Height peaks in adolescence, where a teen will gain about 50 per cent of his or her adult weight, and 25 per cent of his or her adult height. For example, if a boy is to grow 6’ tall, he will grow 1’6” during adolescence.
There is a difference in puberty-related height gain between boys and girls. In boys, the height spurt occurs relatively late. Sometimes, it may even happen in college. Girls tend to gain most of their height much before attaining puberty.
Though one’s height is largely governed by pre-determined factors, there are a few things you can do to increase your height:
Exercise : There is no scientific proof that specific exercises can increase height, but regular exercise, especially outdoors, will improve the growth and strength of your bones.
Good posture: Slouching is not a good idea if you want to optimise your height. Make sure you stand straight. There are some health conditions that cause curvature of the back bone, and decrease height. However, these can be surgically corrected.
Coming back to the all-important question, it is possible to predict one’s height potential fairly accurately using the formula:
For boys:
(Father’s Ht in cm +13 ) + Mother’s Ht / 2
For girls:
(Father’s Ht in cm -13 ) + Mother’s Ht / 2
But remember that height is not the most important feature of an individual’s personality, or even presence for that matter. A healthy body and mind, and a cheerful disposition are definitely way more attractive.