We know that bone age and life age are not exactly in sync.
For every 1 year, the age of life increases by 1 year;
However, bone age may be less than 1 year old, exactly 1 year old, or more than 1 year old.
Nowadays, children eat less actively, and it is common for them to have high bone age.
So, what should parents do if they find that their bone age is too old?
Step1 How much is the bone age?
Image Credit: Cutie High
Step2 Look at the "Height Growth Rate of Bone Age"
To put it simply, it is: for every 1 year of bone age, how many centimeters does the child's height grow?
For example:
On November 1, 2021, Xiao Ming was 5 years old, with a bone age of 5.6 years and a height of 112cm
On November 1, 2022, Xiao Ming was 6 years old, with a bone age of 6.8 years and a height of 117cm
Bone age is within the normal range.
But this year, his height has grown by 5cm, and his bone age has increased by 1.2 years;
After conversion, the height corresponding to the bone age of 1 year has only grown by 5/1.2≈4.17cm, which does not reach the average height growth rate of children aged 3-8 years.
Image Credit: Cutie High
It is necessary to seek out a doctor/height manager in time to evaluate what factors cause "bone age to grow fast, but height not to keep up".
Step3 Also pay attention to these 3 points
(1) Have you gained too much weight recently?
Excess adipose tissue produces aromatase (a.k.a. estrogen synthetase), which catalyzes the conversion of androgens into estrogen in the body.
High levels of estrogen accelerate maturation and apoptosis of growth plate chondrocytes, resulting in an earlier bone age.
Image Credit: Cutie High
Be careful if you gain more weight than the numbers above!
Parents should control their children's weight and eat less high-calorie, high-fat foods. Children who are already overweight/obese should exercise reasonably, eat a healthy diet, and control the rate of weight gain.
(2) Did you develop sex too early (precocious puberty)?
In children with precocious puberty, due to the early initiation of sex hormones, the epiphyseal closure time will also be advanced, and the height growth period will be shortened accordingly.
For children approaching the age of sexual development (8 years old for females and 9 years old for males), if the bone age increases too fast, parents should also pay attention to whether the child has early sexual development:
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(3) Are you taking supplements?
Long-term use of ginseng, deer antler, purple river car, royal jelly and other supplements, as well as chicken embryos, silkworm pupae and other foods, will also promote the continuous growth and proliferation of chondrocytes, resulting in accelerated maturity of bone age, and even precocious puberty.
In addition, if parents are taking birth control pills, they must put them away to prevent their children from taking them by mistake.
For children in the growth and development period, it is best to monitor the bone age 1-2 times a year and use the same bone age standard for assessment (it is recommended to use the "Zhonghua-05" bone age standard).
It is recommended that parents use the cute tall program to automatically generate a bone age and height assessment report, and you can understand what your bone age looks like and what your height looks like at a glance!
Resources
1. Standardized growth curves of height and weight of children aged 0-18 in China, Li Hui, Ji Chengye, Zong Xinnan, Zhang Yaqin, Chinese Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 49, No. 7, July 2009.
2. Bone age does not necessarily grow taller in advance? You need to get this knowledge! Hi-tech
Cute and high, more suitable for the new generation of Chinese children's growth management experts
Lovely High is a platform that focuses on children's height management and provides six modules of health management programs for children and adolescents aged 3~16, including health assessment, psychological behavior, nutrition management, sleep management, exercise guidance, and posture correction.
At present, it has cooperated with more than 2,000 medical institutions, nearly 300 experts and doctors, and served 600,000 home users.