Increasing height for children is not difficult
The impressive height of some players in the U-23 football team shows that interventions on height growth for Vietnamese children since 1995 and sports training have shown initial effectiveness.
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| Children swimming will increase height. |
According to Dr. Truong Hong Son - Director of the Institute of Applied Medicine, intervention to increase height requires a longer time than intervention to treat underweight malnutrition. In which, nutrition, exercise and sleep play an important role in increasing height for children.
Sleep, exercise related to height
According to published figures, the average height of Vietnamese youth in 2016 was 164cm for men and 153cm for women, about 3cm taller than their peers 25 years ago (1993). Compared to Southeast Asia, Vietnamese youth are only slightly taller than their Indonesian peers; men are 0.4cm shorter than their Cambodian peers, and women are 0.2cm shorter. Compared to the world standard, Vietnamese youth are about 10cm shorter.
However, according to Dr. Truong Hong Son, the above height parameters were measured 7 years ago, when the intervention to improve children's height (started in 1994 in some communes and deployed nationwide since 1998) had not yet been effective. "The next measurement in 2019 will show the results of the intervention from 1998 when deployed nationwide until now" - Mr. Son said.
Dr. Son also said that after more than 20 years of intervention, the rate of children under 5 years old with weight malnutrition is now below 15%, a decrease of 2/3 compared to the time of the intervention, but the rate of children with height malnutrition has only decreased by 1/3.
"Height intervention requires a longer time and requires patience, from the time the child is in the womb until puberty. The important factors for height growth are diet, sleep and exercise. For Vietnamese children, surveys so far show that children do not get enough sleep and exercise, not to mention diet" - according to Dr. Son.
Sleep before 10pm, practice according to the 5+2 model
In order for children to maximize their height potential, Mr. Son recommends that their diet must ensure adequate energy and micronutrients, according to the nutritional pyramid for each age group.
For example, children aged 2-5 years old need to eat 120-160 grams of rice or equivalent substitute food every day, along with 150-200 grams of fruits, vegetables, 120-150 grams of meat or 140-160 grams of fish, shrimp or crab. Each week, children need to eat 2-3 eggs, 30-40 grams of oil or fat (each teaspoon is equivalent to 5 grams of oil/fat) and less than 3 grams of salt/day, in addition to adding milk to meals.
Regarding sleep, height growth hormone will be most effective when children sleep deeply from 11pm to 1am (to sleep deeply enough at 11pm, they must sleep from 10pm), but Vietnamese children often have to study very late at night, especially those in the city and their morning wake-up time is according to their parents' working hours, so many children do not get enough sleep.
Regarding the exercise regimen, Mr. Son believes that the 5+2 regimen should be applied, which means 5 days of exercise and 2 days of sports per week, in which the 5 exercise days are for 30 minutes per day for children to practice exercises, combined with housework (children 2 years old and older can start to be guided to do chores in the family) such as stacking bowls, stacking food, picking vegetables, washing clothes... The last two days of the week should be spent 30 minutes/day to practice sports, especially sports that can stretch the body such asswimming, basketball, bar...
Vietnam's goal is that by 2020, the average height of 5-year-old children will increase by more than 1.5-2cm, the height of adults will increase by 1-1.5cm compared to 2010, and by 2030, the height of Vietnamese people will increase by 4cm compared to 2010. If no intervention is made now, the above parameters will only be... a dream!
Prioritize nutritional careThe first 1,000 days of life
At a recent meeting held in Hanoi on upcoming nutrition improvement projects, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said a survey eight years ago showed that young Vietnamese men ranked 19th from the bottom (out of nearly 200 countries and territories with statistics) in terms of height, while women ranked 13th from the bottom.
According to Ms. Tien, Vietnam will prioritize nutritional care in the first 1,000 days of a child's life, which is a very important period that affects the potential for future height development, combined with effective interventions to improve height that the international community has implemented.
