How Children Grow Taller

Story

Connected to · 4

regulates · 4

Zinc
Children short of zinc grow slowly. Pooling 33 randomized trials, extra zinc made children grow a bit taller, mainly those who were already short, thin or likely short of zinc; the authors' advice targets populations at high risk of zinc deficiency, not all children.
Vitamin D
A severe shortage of vitamin D or calcium causes rickets in children: the growth plate cartilage cannot mineralize, the legs bow, the wrists and ankles thicken, and growth slows. Without a shortage, extra calcium adds bone mass, not height.
Sleep Architecture & Sleep Debt
Growth hormone's largest daily release follows deep sleep after falling asleep: in two small studies in young adults, delaying sleep delayed the peak, and reversing sleep and waking by 12 hours moved the peak with sleep. Growth hormone drives the growth plates, but the step from sleep to a child's final height has not been measured directly.
Youth & adolescent training
Children grow taller at the growth plates near the ends of the bones, the same still-growing cartilage that youth training has to respect. In controlled strength-training trials in children, growth in height was not affected; the claim that lifting stunts growth is not supported by the trials so far.

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Stop 1/7

Bones lengthen at the growth plates

THE SHORT ANSWER

Children grow taller only at the growth plates near the ends of the bones: cartilage cells divide, swell and are replaced by bone. When the plates fuse at the end of puberty, the bones stop getting longer.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

Once a plate has fused, nothing a person eats or does can make the bone longer.

EVIDENCEGUIDE 1 · REVIEW 2

READ THE ORIGINAL

A child grows taller as the bones of the legs and spine slowly get longer, and bones get longer in only one place: the growth plates at each end.

A growth plate is a layer of cartilage sandwiched near each end of a long bone. Its cartilage cells first divide and line up in stacks, then swell to a much larger size; that cartilage is then replaced by bone, and the bone extends a little further (Baron 2015). Gaining height means this layer keeps making new cartilage and keeps turning it into bone.

The layer does not work forever. The reserve cells inside it can divide only a limited number of times and slow down as they are used up, which is why older children grow more slowly. At the end of puberty the whole layer is replaced by bone, a step called epiphyseal fusion, and from then on the bone cannot get longer (Nilsson 2004).

So how much more a child can grow depends on two things: how long the growth plates stay open, and how good their working conditions are in the meantime. The chapters that follow are about those conditions. If a child's height keeps sliding down the growth chart, or they are much shorter than children their age, the chapter When to take a child to a doctor lists the situations that need a doctor.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

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How Children Grow Taller

Story

Connected to · 4

regulates · 4

Zinc
Children short of zinc grow slowly. Pooling 33 randomized trials, extra zinc made children grow a bit taller, mainly those who were already short, thin or likely short of zinc; the authors' advice targets populations at high risk of zinc deficiency, not all children.
Vitamin D
A severe shortage of vitamin D or calcium causes rickets in children: the growth plate cartilage cannot mineralize, the legs bow, the wrists and ankles thicken, and growth slows. Without a shortage, extra calcium adds bone mass, not height.
Sleep Architecture & Sleep Debt
Growth hormone's largest daily release follows deep sleep after falling asleep: in two small studies in young adults, delaying sleep delayed the peak, and reversing sleep and waking by 12 hours moved the peak with sleep. Growth hormone drives the growth plates, but the step from sleep to a child's final height has not been measured directly.
Youth & adolescent training
Children grow taller at the growth plates near the ends of the bones, the same still-growing cartilage that youth training has to respect. In controlled strength-training trials in children, growth in height was not affected; the claim that lifting stunts growth is not supported by the trials so far.

Read full story

Stop 1/7

Bones lengthen at the growth plates

THE SHORT ANSWER

Children grow taller only at the growth plates near the ends of the bones: cartilage cells divide, swell and are replaced by bone. When the plates fuse at the end of puberty, the bones stop getting longer.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

Once a plate has fused, nothing a person eats or does can make the bone longer.

EVIDENCEGUIDE 1 · REVIEW 2

READ THE ORIGINAL

A child grows taller as the bones of the legs and spine slowly get longer, and bones get longer in only one place: the growth plates at each end.

A growth plate is a layer of cartilage sandwiched near each end of a long bone. Its cartilage cells first divide and line up in stacks, then swell to a much larger size; that cartilage is then replaced by bone, and the bone extends a little further (Baron 2015). Gaining height means this layer keeps making new cartilage and keeps turning it into bone.

The layer does not work forever. The reserve cells inside it can divide only a limited number of times and slow down as they are used up, which is why older children grow more slowly. At the end of puberty the whole layer is replaced by bone, a step called epiphyseal fusion, and from then on the bone cannot get longer (Nilsson 2004).

So how much more a child can grow depends on two things: how long the growth plates stay open, and how good their working conditions are in the meantime. The chapters that follow are about those conditions. If a child's height keeps sliding down the growth chart, or they are much shorter than children their age, the chapter When to take a child to a doctor lists the situations that need a doctor.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.