Growing at the right age

Remember those cute little friends you had when you were in school (of course you were cute and little yourself too). But ever noticed some of those little friends of yours grew up to be larger than you had imagined and then you kept wondering, 'In what world!' 

There's always a school mate who turned up to be taller than u had expected him/her to be. Was it random or something was at play? 

I remember a friend who was quite short as compared to his age. But by the age he was 16 he turned up to be one among the tallest. Apparently he had joined a Karate class which helped him grow taller when his growth hormones were most active. Yes! There is a age period when you are supposed to grow, when you are supposed to take care of your diet and your exercise routine. There will be a limitation to the extent you can grow because of genes etc but at least you can attain your maximum.

And not just physically, a child needs to grow intellectually as well. I recollect an example from my college. There was a guy who was literally a genius- to me and to others from the batch. We tried to understand the secret and it turned out that he had learned everything at a very young age. Apparently he was perfect at many programming languages by the time he completed class 8. By that time he already was a master at calculus and other topics, we hadn't even heard about it. He was qualified enough to clear IITJEE by the time he passed class 10. Another example would be - The Japanese. They are very good at mathematics and in my opinion the reason is because they exercise their neurons at a very young age. There's no denying the fact that a child can pick up new technology way faster than an adult. This is true because the brain cells are most active then. 

In short, no debate on the fact that growth - both physical and psychological- is extremely critical to be taken care of during the right age stage. Once you don't capitalize during that stage, it's impossible to reach the zenith one would wish for. One can become a genius if trained at the right age. One can build a strong core and stay fit.

It's important to keep a track if the child is growing at the right pace or not. If he/she is not growing at the rate you had expected you better make them work towards it. The regret of not doing it when you had the opportunity is very painful. Less than expected physical growth has a direct impact on the confidence of a person which will have a lifelong impact and may be much harder to regain the same confidence.

So what all can be done if you find out that the growth pace need to be checked. A list can always be made but the following two would be most critical:

• Building a discipline- such as exercise routines and play time- depending on the age stage (<10, <10-15)
• Diet which doesn't add junk to the body. More of growth nutrients, protein etc.

For child below age 10, it may be difficult to bring the required discipline. A fun way would be to include solutions like Horlicks Growth+. For details check out: https://growthplus.horlicks.in/.