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As parents, there's no greater joy than witnessing your son flourish each day. Particularly, when you have an adorable little boy, you naturally want him to achieve optimal height and physique. A common and simple method to gauge your child's development is by measuring his height and weight according to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. By referencing the charts, parents can track their son's height and weight according to his age, making necessary adjustments to ensure his optimal growth.
Tracking Height and Weight for Boys
From the moment a child is born, his body undergoes continuous development until adolescence. Monitoring a boy's height and weight is crucial for keeping tabs on his overall development.
Relying on WHO's Height and Weight Standards: A Parent's Trustworthy Guide
A Height and Weight Measurement Chart for Boys
Below is the latest standard height and weight chart for boys from birth to 10 years old. If you want to estimate your child's development at each stage, compare his height and weight to this standard chart:
A Weight and Height Measurement Chart for Boys
Guide to Checking Boys' Height and Weight
Understanding the Boys' Height and Weight Chart for 2023 from Birth to Adulthood:
There will be 3 main columns: age in months, weight in kg, and height in cm. Parents just need to cross-reference from the age column to the other 2 columns to know the standard weight and height of their child.
For each height and weight, there will be 3 sub-columns labeled as: -2SD, AVG, 2SD. You can understand the meanings of these labels as follows:
- Average (AVG): Child is in standard average condition.
- Below -2SD: Child is undernourished, underweight, or stunted.
- Above 2SD: Child is overweight or obese (by weight) or very tall (by height).
So, if a boy's height and weight according to age fall within the AVG range, the child is developing very well. However, if the height and weight are in the -2SD or 2SD column, the child may be undernourished or overweight/obese. In this case, parents need to reconsider the child's nutrition regime.
Factors Influencing Boys' Height and Weight
Boys' height and weight are influenced by various factors. Some notable factors include:
Impact of Genetic Inheritance
Boys' height and weight are significantly influenced by genetic inheritance. A child is more likely to be overweight if one or both parents are overweight or obese. Genes can affect the amount of fat a child stores in the body and where excess fat accumulates.
Similarly, a child's height is also determined by the genes of the parents. If both parents are tall, the child will also have good height. Conversely, if the height of both parents is limited, the likelihood of the child having average height like the parents is higher.
Mother's Health During Pregnancy and Fetal Health
Intrauterine Growth Restriction: It's a condition where the fetus experiences disrupted development in the mother's womb. Lack of proper prenatal care or smoking during pregnancy can impact the child's development, leading to lower height and weight compared to standards.
Child's Health Status
If your child doesn't meet the standard height and weight, it could be due to various health conditions. These may include:
- Undernutrition.
- Excessive and prolonged stress.
- Digestive issues.
- Issues with kidneys, lungs, or heart.
Family Lifestyle Habits
Eating habits and physical activity can impact boys' height and weight. Examples of childhood overweight and obesity include:
Consuming excessive fast food and sugary snacks can lead to childhood overweight
- Consuming a lot of processed sugary foods.
- Eating and drinking high-calorie, sugary, and fatty foods.
- Sitting or lying down for long periods; and limiting physical activity.
In general, genetic factors can significantly influence a child's height and weight. However, environmental factors such as diet and exercise habits can impact growth during development.
Everyday Nutritional Regimen
External environmental factors such as nutrition are crucial for boys' height and weight. For instance, malnutrition can slow physical development. It not only affects bone density and dental health, organ size in the body, but also slows down a child's growth during adolescence and teenage years.
With a complete nutritional regimen, children can achieve optimal development in both weight and height. Therefore, at every stage, you must ensure your child consumes all necessary nutrients, especially calcium to improve height. Apart from nutrition, other environmental factors such as climate, environmental pollution can hinder physical development of children.
Methods to Attain Standard Height and Weight for Boys
Among the factors affecting height and weight, genetic factors are almost unchangeable. However, to improve height and weight for boys, mothers can consider some of the following methods:
Ensure Adequate Nutrition for the Child
Boys' height and weight will be ensured with a proper nutrition regimen. Mothers should plan a diet that is truly suitable for the child's age. The menu should include a variety of foods, ensuring all 4 basic nutritional groups: protein, lipids - fats, starch, vitamins, and minerals. Pay attention to increasing calcium-rich foods to promote height development in children. These include: shrimp, crab, snails, fish, milk, and dairy products in daily meals.
Parents Pay Attention to Providing All 4 Nutritional Groups for the Child
To meet the child's nutritional requirements, they should have 3 main meals a day. Additionally, supplementing with about 2 to 3 small meals ensures that the child can achieve optimal height and weight development.
Ensure Proper Sleep and Adequate Physical Activity for the Child
The second way to improve boys' height and weight is to care for their sleep. Good, sufficient sleep at night promotes the production of growth hormones, contributes to calcium absorption, and stimulates bone growth in children. Children should ensure they sleep for at least 8 to 12 hours each night and rest deeply and on time.
Additionally, encourage children to engage in age-appropriate recreational activities. Exercising in this way promotes metabolic activity, provides energy, cell regeneration, and calcium absorption to each joint to make bones stronger and healthier. Therefore, parents should encourage and establish a habit of exercising every morning with exercises that are suitable for the child's age and fitness level.
Provide the Child with Some Functional Foods
Some children may have slightly lower height and weight than the average, so parents may consider using some functional products. Products must be reputable, high quality, and suitable for the child's age. In addition, parents can consider products containing nutrients that help bone development: Calcium, Vitamin D3, and MK7, along with many other trace elements that help children develop comprehensively physically. And some other nutrients like zinc, magnesium,
DHA…
Parents can consider supplementing functional foods for children to help them develop better
To improve a boy's weight, mothers can enhance his digestion by giving him probiotics. Mothers should choose reputable products, carefully read the instructions before use to achieve the best results.
However, we have just learned about boys' height and weight according to age. And the factors influencing a boy's height and weight. Hopefully, the information above is useful for parents.
