Supplements and tips to help your child gain height
If you feel your child is small in stature, is growing slowly and has not won the average height, you can help by following these recommendations. While the height depends primarily on the genetic factor, the inheritance of height of parents, grandparents, etc., we can also help to have tall and well developed children if we take into account some recommendations in the growth stage.
Diet
Diet, as is well known, is a foundation for children to grow properly. To achieve a balanced system and maximum height of your child, it is necessary to take into account the following:
Food and eating habits that hamper the development of the child
Prevent your child eats only "to fill the stomach". Junk food with low nutritional value does not help the cells, tissues, bones and develop optimum systems, only causes health problems and overweight. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid the following food and habits in the diet:
- Avoid all processed: fried meats, sugars and refined flours.
- White Sugar: This product, in addition to severely affect the nervous system and other major body systems, demineralizes body, stealing calcium from bones and causing them not to develop to the fullest.
- Sausages, fried and refined flours: These products have the great disadvantage that, besides offering no nutritional value, get stuck in the intestinal walls, causing the bad absorption of nutrients. The poor absorption of nutrients undoubtedly will be reflected in health, height and body development of the child or young person.
- Avoid fast foods, salty or spicy.
- If your kid is hungry between meals, it is best to give fruits, cereal grains, chopped fruit or vegetables. Avoid giving bread, sweets or fried foods.
- If your child is not used to these foods, you must begin to accustom gradually trying to make a gradual diet change.
- Avoid buying junk foods like candy, sodas, white bread, etc. So your child won’t have the alternative to use them and will use new feeding strategies.
Food for healthy development of children
Once you have started the diet change, you need to consider also the most nutritious food for your child. Here is a list of the main foods you should not miss in the diet:
- Calcium is one of the most important minerals for the proper development of children, it is found in large proportions in the body and is indispensable, among other things, for optimal body growth. It is believed that cow's milk is a great source of calcium, but almonds, dark green vegetables, amaranth, etc. are also rich sources of calcium and the advantage of these foods, unlike cow's milk, they don’t cause indigestion or health problems that eventually the cow's milk causes.
- Citrus: oranges, lemons, grapefruit, tangerines, etc. are fruits high in vitamin C and antioxidants, beneficial for the proper development of bones and systems. It helps form an important protein used to produce skin, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels, in addition to helping the maintenance and development of cartilage, bones and teeth.
- Vitamin D is involved in the proper absorption of calcium and phosphorus in the intestine, helping to place them correctly in bones and teeth. You can find this vitamin in the egg yolk, milk, yogurt, fish liver oils or synthesized through exposure to sunlight. Its deficiency produces alterations or poor bone development, dental and metabolic disorders. Their excess causes headaches or other symptoms.
- Amino acids and proteins: essential for growth and the development of tissues, bones, cartilage, muscles, etc. There are amino acids that must be consumed through food because the body doesn’t produce them. Therefore, you must include the following foods and supplements in the diet of children to ensure that the requirements are covered: marine algae, brewer's yeast, amaranth, whole grains, soy, quinoa, chickpeas, oats, corn, lentils, rice, peanuts, and more.
Environment
Weather conditions like cold, heat, humidity, etc. are factors that influence growth and development of children. However, the environmental conditions that favor the full development of children are clean air, healthy water and living conditions, such as a relaxed, harmonious and creative environment.
Posture and spinal
The spine is one of the key factors in the height of children. For a child to acquire the maximum height, it is necessary that the spine is healthy, flexible and maintains a proper posture. For this, there is nothing better than exercise and constant correction of posture, so the child can get used to walk up straight. A very good exercise for this is that the child hang from a bar or gym equipment in the arms. This exercise will prevent that children hunch.
Exercise
To earn a maximum height, there is nothing better than a well-oxygenated blood and bones and healthy and flexible muscles. If the diet is the main factor for this, exercise is the essential complement. It is necessary to promote physical activity at least three or four times a week, the child should do at least one hour of exercise where breathing quickens and muscles and bones get stronger. Running, swimming, playing basketball are some options. Also the child can exercise through games like hide and seek, or other where they are happy in constant activity, but is always recommended that in addition to the game, to practice a sport where the kid can gain flexibility and elasticity.