Many Vietnamese children are short due to lack of micronutrients in early life.
Although her son is in 8th grade this year, his height is only 1.43m, much shorter than his peers. Not knowing the reason, she took him to the doctor and realized that her son lacked essential micronutrients, especially calcium.
In fact, many Vietnamese children currently lack micronutrients because they are not supplemented from the first thousand days of life, causing their height to not reach the minimum height of Vietnamese people.
Sharing at the workshop on improving Vietnamese stature organized by the Vietnam Institute of Applied Medicine recently, Dr. Truong Hong Son said: The height of the parents will determine a certain height for their children, but maximizing the height of the children (within the genetic range) depends mainly on nutrition. For example, if the father is 1.68m tall and the mother is 1.56m tall, the son can reach a height of about 1.68m to 1.74m.
To grow taller, the deciding factors are nutrition, environment, illness, exercise and sleep. Nutrition contributes up to 32% while genetic factors contribute only 23% in determining a child's height.
One of the reasons why Vietnamese people have not achieved their desired height is due to a lack of micronutrients from an early age, starting in the womb. The rate of low birth weight babies is still high, and micronutrient deficiencies are common among pregnant women. When children grow up, most families only focus on eating enough and gaining weight, without paying due attention to the important micronutrients for the child's height development.
Another mistake is that parents do not take advantage of the golden stages of growth. Height only develops until about 19 years old. The most important stages are the first thousand days of life (including pregnancy and the first 2 years after birth), pre-school and puberty. Missing any stage means losing the opportunity to grow taller at that stage.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam has risen to fourth place in terms of height. This is a big step forward compared to 10 years ago, when we were in the bottom half of the region. However, the average height of Vietnamese people is still much lower than the global average (176.1cm for men and 163.1cm for women). Vietnam is currently ranked 153/201 countries in terms of average height. Vietnamese people are still short.
Supplement enough but must be correct when using micronutrients for children
Doctors recommend that micronutrient supplementation is important and necessary, but supplementation must not only be sufficient but also correct.
According to specialist doctor II Hoang Quoc Tuong, lecturer of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City: Many parents see other people's children using it and buy it for their children. That is not necessarily true. You have to look at your child's physical condition and see if it is necessary to supplement. Supplementing not only requires the right dosage and ingredients, but also ensures quality, reputable products, clear origin, and production according to safe processes and technology.
Micronutrient supplementation for children is increasingly receiving attention from parents. This is a positive signal from awareness to action to help improve the stature of Vietnamese people in the future.
Adequate and correct supplementation will help children have a healthy body. However, parents must be alert when choosing products for their children, should have advice from doctors, especially avoid buying floating products, of unknown origin, advertised exaggeratedly on social networking sites, which can easily lead to loss of money and health.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/can-bo-sung-du-va-dung-vi-chat-dinh-duong-cho-tre-de-cai-thien-tam-voc-post888957.html
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