Our reporter Wang Yanbin correspondent Xie Jing

  Medical profession

  Today, with the increasing standard of living, the incidence of short stature is on the rise. On August 18, when children's growth and development health day is approaching, experts from the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology at Qilu Hospital of Shandong University have revealed that the incidence of short stature in my country is as high as 3%.

  Short stature refers to a child whose height is lower than 2 standard deviations of the average height of children of the same sex, age, and ethnicity. For example, the growth rate of children is less than 7 cm/year before 3 years old; less than 5 cm/year from 3 years old to puberty. Adolescence is less than 6 cm/year.

  Experts said that children's developmental delay will lead to an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases such as physical fitness, mental retardation, and cardiovascular disease, which will lead to future labor loss and will bring a huge burden to society and families. It is understood that there are currently 7 million people suffering from short stature in the age group of 4 to 15 years old in my country, but the number of medical consultations is less than 300,000.

  Professor Luo Xiaoping, deputy chairman of the Pediatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and head of the endocrine genetic metabolism group, previously introduced to the media that only 30,000 people are receiving regular treatment among patients with short stature. At present, many parents still lack the correct understanding of short stature, which causes the children to miss the best treatment time.

  Professor Xu Ruiying, a pediatric endocrinologist at Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, said that many parents have some misconceptions about the growth of children.

  It is often said: "Parents are high, children must be tall in the future." In this regard, Xu Ruiying explained that although the genetic factors of parents account for 60%-70% of children's height development, in addition to inheritance, there are diseases Factors, educational factors, nutrition, exercise, sleep, psychological and environmental factors in life, the height of children born by the same pair of parents will also be different. Therefore, if the parents are tall, the child may not be tall in the future, and height monitoring is needed.

  Some parents think: "The child is short now, it is late, and twenty-three still jumps." Xu Ruiying said, this kind of statement is unscientific. "Late night", medically, refers to the constitutional delay of pubertal development. If the height of the child falls behind before puberty, it should be judged by a professional doctor whether it is late, and it must not just wait.

  Some parents also said: "The child grows fast and is now tall, and there will be no problem in the future." Xu Ruiying believes that if the child's bone age is checked earlier than the age and the height and weight are increased rapidly, it may be the early manifestation of precocious puberty. Children with precocious physique develop in advance, childhood shortens, pubertal process accelerates, and epiphyseal closure also advances. Therefore, we must pay attention to the development of the child's second sexual characteristics to see if there is precocious puberty.

  Xu Ruiying said that science has shown that under normal circumstances, the epiphysis of a person will be basically closed when he is 14 or 15 years old. Once the epiphysis is closed, it is impossible to grow taller. Therefore, we can no longer blindly wait for the child to grow up late or even expect "twenty-three rushes". The child's growth and development cannot be waited for. This is to "grab" the height with the epiphyseal line.