"Are my growth plates still open?"

Recognize open growth joints

• Your growth plates are on your bones. Perhaps you have a picture of a bone in front of you or you are looking at an X-ray. As an example, growth plates can be explained well on the large thigh bone.
• The two ends of the bone are called the epiphyses. The narrow middle section is the shaft of the bone, the diaphysis. The epiphyseal plate, the growth plate, lies between these two areas. The longitudinal growth of the bones starts from the growth plate.
• When you were born, the growth plate was made of cartilage. One then speaks of open growth joints. Over the years, the joint becomes more and more ossified, so that around the age of 20 There is no cartilage left by the year of life. Now you can say: “My growth plates are closed.” At this point in time, your growth in length is complete.
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• Your growth in length is not controlled by open growth plates, but by the growth hormone. If the sex hormones are added during puberty, most people experience a growth spurt.
• However, there are people for whom various causes lead to disturbances in growth. Perhaps you think your children are too small or too big? Then you should speak to your pediatrician.


How big will i get - Carry out the self-assessment test correctly

Young people often wonder how big they will one day be. Maybe your ...

Are my children too small?

• If you think your children are too small or too big, speak to your pediatrician about it the next time you visit.
• When it comes to preventive medical checkups, however, your pediatrician generally also takes into account the size of your child eye and would have likely already told you if there was any suspicion of a stunted growth.
• If your child is already relatively large for their age, it may be a good idea to have an X-ray of the carpal bones made. Open growth joints are clearly visible here. Depending on the extent of the open growth plates, the doctor can give a prognosis of how far your child will continue to grow. Doctors think that another growth spurt could cause complications, hormone therapy can stop the growth.
• But there are also phases in the life of adolescents in which they do not grow quickly without a pronounced growth disorder. Was your child seriously ill? Is it nearing puberty?
• If children do not thrive sufficiently, this can also be due to malnutrition. A balanced diet and sufficient exercise are necessary for children to grow.
• However, a lack of absorption due to undetected intestinal diseases, for example, can mean that your child does not grow sufficiently either because he or she lacks nutrients.