What Is Stunted-Growth And How To Stunt Your Growth?

by Madhushree Ghosh
what is stunted growth and how to stunt your growth

Stunted-growth of children and toddlers is a common issue of this modern era, where every 2 out of 10 parents are suffering from this problem. Puberty is a very important period in our lives. This is the exact session when adolescents reach the exact sexual maturity and capable of reproduction. Some known and unknown reasons can work behind stunted-growth issue of a growing human being.

  •       What is stunted growth?
  •       How to understand the criterion of stunted growth?
  •       Possible causes of stunted growth?
  •       Foods that can stunt your growth?
  •       How to stunt your growth?

stunted growth

Also Read:-Growth And Development Of Newborn Baby!

Here we come up with a few significant details about this topic and everything you want to know about stunted-growth. Let’s examine the facts and learn how to fight with stunted-growth like an expert with the help of this discussion below-

What Is Stunted-Growth?

This is a problem often found in a growing child. It is one type of impaired growth issue or improper development in a child. Children with stunted-growth couldn’t grow to their full potentiality depending on their age. As in, a child should be taller to a certain height or growth with a perfect weight according to the health experts. When a child couldn’t reach that level based on their right age, it is called the stunted-growth problem.

possible causes of stunted growth

Also Read:-A Big No To Alcohol During Pregnancy, Why?

How To Understand The Criterion Of Stunted-Growth?

If your child is analyzed with an underdevelopment problem for counting with-less height or less-weight issue, then he or she is considered stunted. Usually, a stunted-growth problem is apparently detected on children, teens, and young adults’ stages of life with the right medial analysis.

how to stunt your growth

If a child is identified with two standard deviations less than the level of WHO Child Growth Standard Median, then the child has a growth-stunt issue. Otherwise, children with only one standard deviation may have slower growth issue and nothing else.

Possible Causes Of Stunted-Growth:

There could be many reasons to work behind having this stunted-growth problem in a child. Some of the common reasons are as follows-

Poor Nutrition:

When a child couldn’t get their required nutrition for growth, it is more common to have stunted growth in their near future. This kind of issue could start from the fetus’s form of a baby and continued until their growing ages. This problem may happen because of not consuming good foods for long and avoiding basic nutrients which are essential for human growth.

poor nutrition

Inadequate Psychological Stimulation:

The human body needs an adequate amount of hormone emission for proper functioning. Any kind of interruption in this process could lead to an inappropriate growth issue. This type of issue often brings inadequate psychological stimulation too, which is considered one of the biggest reasons for stunted-growth.

inadequate psychological stimulation

Recurrent Infection:

Recurrent infections are some serious types of infections, which spread in large numbers, last for long, and form severe than normal infections. When a child gets infected by more than one or two infections back to back in a single year, they are called contaminated with recurrent infection. This kind of problem often leads to an improper growth issue or a stunted-growth problem shortly.

recurrent infection

Lack Of Sleep At The Growing Stage:

A child could grow adequately when he or she gets enough rest or sleep in their growing period. It is clinically proven than a baby could grow more than 40% in their sleep, while a toddler could grow 20% more with each additional hour of their sleep. It has been seen that the changeable bursts of sleep in a child may lead to growth spurts with their regular habits of sleep or taking rest. When children could get them enough sleep every 24-hour they must have the issue of stunted-growth soon in their lives.

lack of sleep at the growing stage

Practicing Squatting For Long:

Squatting is a good exercise method to keep the body fit and healthy, in which one needs to sit on their bended knees by keeping the heels close and touching the buttocks as well back of thighs with their folded legs. Practicing squat for a long time may stunt your growth unexpectedly instead of providing health benefits as you expect from it. Try to avoid include this type of workouts during the growing session of your kids, especially for an extended period.

practising squatting for long

Consuming Unhealthy Foods:

Consuming unhealthy foods is one of the biggest reasons to have a stunted-growth problem in your growing child. There are numbers of the readymade, instant foods that are available in the market, packed with some unhealthy flavors and preservatives. These components provide harmful effects on your growing track and sometimes may hold the normal growth of a child effectively. One must identify those unhealthy foods and eliminate them as soon as possible from their list entirely to get an uninterrupted growing trend until the last stage of growth.

consuming unhealthy foods

Also Read:-Most Common Baby Making Mistakes!

Foods That Can Stunt Your Growth:

Some harmful and must-avoidable foods to avoid stunted-growth are-

Junk Foods And Fast Foods:

Junk foods like pizza, burgers, French fries, chips, hot dogs, patties, etc. and fast foods like eggrolls, chicken roll, tandoori items, noodles, pasta, pastries, etc. are some dangerous foods in this matter. They come with absolutely zero nutritional value and lead your child to the road of obesity. These foods can easily work as a stunt-growth supplement in the growing session of your child.

avoid junk foods and fast foods

Foods With Added-Sweeteners:

Foods with added sugar and sweeteners like cake, muffins, cupcakes, pastries, cookies, cream-biscuits, readymade fruit juice, sweets, desserts, ice-creams, etc. are some other types of harmful foods in this case. These types of items are prepared with an unhealthy amount of sugar content, which leads to the problem of diabetes even in the child when consumed for a long while constantly.

foods with added sweetners

Corn Products:

Corn is a high-fiber product but, sometimes works as a stunted-growth component in some children, when consumed in a longer period repeatedly. When people consume corn products repeatedly for an extended period, they may have a stunted-growth problem in their growing session. Corn and corn products can develop aflatoxins molds which slow down the growth in young children when consuming for an uninterrupted period repeatedly.

corn products

Carbonated Drinks:

Carbonated drinks like soda, cold drinks, energy drinks, etc. are one more dangerous category to avoid stunted growth issues. These sorts of drinks come with lots and lots of bad health effects. In addition, they are completely empty calorie products, which have no health benefits and nutrient values. Reports prove that kids, who drink cold drinks more amounts, may have low-bone density than normal kids.

carbonated drinks

Soy Products:

Soy products are highly nutritious, but sometimes provide harmful effects on the growth track of a growing child. Some of the tasty soy products like tofu, soy milk, soy sauce, soybean oil, etc. contain a large number of physic acids. This content diminishes the absorption process of calcium in a body, thus hampers the normal growth legacy in a child effectively. Try to avoid unfermented soy products to keep the growth track of your child uninterrupted from every aspect.

healthy soy products

Alcohol:

It is superfluous to say that how much bad content alcohol products have in every category of health. This legacy hasn’t broken for the growth of your child as well. It is clinically proven that alcohol or any alcoholic products may stunt the growth of a growing child noticeably. So, it is essential to keep your kids away from a drop of alcohol when they are in their raising period.

alcohol

Instant Foods And Foods With Preservatives:

Instant foods like packaged foods and foods with preservatives which you can store in your fridge for long are some foods you must eliminate from the list of your child’s diet immediately. The harmful preservative used in such products not only hamper but ruin the entire vigorous track of growth in your child, while consumed in a longer period repeatedly.

instant food and foods with preservatives

How To Stunt Your Growth?

So, if you are still clued less how to stunt your growth unknowingly, check out these possible reasons for it and try to stay away from them as much as probable in your regular life for the normal growth of your child-

  •       Following an unhealthy lifestyle for long.
  •       Having insufficient nutrition.
  •       Consuming harmful foods.
  •       Not getting enough rest.
  •       Having bad environmental impacts.
  •       Suffering from psychological tendencies.
  •       Avoid nutrient-dense foods.
  •       Having chronic diseases repeatedly.
  •       And having the quality of poor absorption of required nutrients.

how to stunt your growth

So, try to focus on these categories vigilantly and keep your child away from the possible causes as much as possible during their whole growing session to stay safe from stunted-growth naturally. 

Also Read:-Breastfeeding Diet – Foods To Increase Milk Supply