What Promotes Height Growth in Infants?

Most parents enjoy conjecturing about how tall their baby will eventually be. You might even wonder whether there's anything you can do to boost your baby's height. While genetics plays the biggest role in your baby's height, nutrition also plays a part. It takes a significant nutritional deficit to affect your baby's height, and overfeeding him will not necessarily make him taller, though it could make him heavier.

  1. Genetics and Height

    • Nothing trumps genetics when it comes to height determination. Your child's genes will account for 60 to 80 percent of his adult height, molecular biologist Chao-Qiang Lai of the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University reports in a 2006 "Scientific American" article. Multiple genes contribute to height, so tall parents won't necessarily have tall children or vice versa.

    Nutrition

    • Nutrition is the environmental factor that has the most effect on your child's final height, contributing between 20 and 40 percent, according to Dr. Lai. Parents whose growth was negatively affected by poor nutrition might move to a more affluent area and produce a child much taller than themselves, simply because their child has access to better nutrition. Protein is the nutrient most responsible for adequate growth in children, Dr. Lai explains, although vitamins and minerals -- such as the mineral calcium and vitamins A and D -- can also play a role.

    Overfeeding

    • Obese children are taller than normal-weight children up until around age 14, according to a German study published in the 2011 "Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism." The increase in height was not due to early puberty, researchers found. Extra weight may stimulate the production of excess insulin, which promotes growth, pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Stephen W. Anderson explains. As they grow older, a natural equalization occurs, and their height falls more in line with their peers, according to the textbook "Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity: Current Status, Consequences and Prevention."

    Height Formulas

    • Strictly for fun, you can estimate your baby's future height using several different formulas. The simplest is to double your baby's height at age 2; if he's 34 inches, he'll be around 68 inches, or 5 feet, 8 inches. A slightly more complex method takes genetics into account. Add your height and your partner's height in inches together. Add 5 inches if you're estimating height for a boy and subtract 5 inches for a girl. Divide the result by two. Your child will most likely be within 4 inches of this estimate.

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