The Growth Process

Everybody grows, it’s only human, but not everyone will grow in the exact same way and to the exact same height…

No one is able to predict when the growth process is going to occur and no one can prevent it from happening either, we have only estimations and you can use them, they are good enough!

While all of us will grow, some of us will definitely grow much quicker than others. This is basically due to not everyone hitting their own growth spurts at the same time. For some people it may happen in short tiny bursts, but for others this may happen all at once, it’s extremely individual and it’s depends on your genetics and diet.

If parents are noticing a delay in their child’s growing trend, then they should definitely have their child seen by their family physician to make sure there is not any ongoing problem. Some children will experience growth defects and parents will want to make sure this is something in which they can completely rule out by visiting their family physician.

When a new born baby is first born they have three hundred bones in their body. But by the time that same new born baby reaches adulthood, they will only have two hundred and six bones in their body. What happened to the other ninety four bones you ask?

Our bones are basically only cartilage when we are new born babies, which is why new born bones are so susceptible to breaking with the lightest impact. However, as the baby grows and ages, the bones will go through an intense growth process known as ossification.

This growth process is where the cartilage begins to turn into bones, the smaller bones will unite with one another to become one large bone, which reduces the number of bones within the body as you age. People have growth plates located within their body normally at the end of their long bones.

The cartilage does not ossify all at the same time, these growth plates will continue to make new tissue while the old tissue turns into bone. As a result, we will continue to grow even more. However, once we finally stops growing, which is usually when we reached adulthood, then these growth plates will final ossify as well, which will leave us at our final height.

However, if something damaging was to happen to our growth plates while we are still young, then our growth could most definitely be stunted. This could actually cause some of the bones to be much more mature than others, while at the same time leaving some bones to be longer than others.

Parents can actually estimate their child’s potential height by simple watching their growth patterns. For instance, a parent can double the height of female child when she reaches the age of three years old (doesn’t always work), which will normally equal their full height as an adult. On the other hand, with a male child, parents must wait until the male child is three

We will discuss in Grow Taller 4 Idiots about all the reasons why growth charts will never be right on the money, because of the many various points that play a role. The charts below however, can be a rough guideline to give you an idea.

Charts can be found at:

http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/growthcharts2/Childrens_Growth_Charts.htm