Last updated on August 20, 2020
Question:
Hi! I am going to turn 14 soon but I am not growing in height. What should I do? Should I join swimming? Eat good food? Or what? Thanks!
Answer:
Since you were conceived you have always been growing, the typical child grows rapidly the first five years of life and then grows one to two inches each year. In adolescence you have a short period of time, generally six months to 18 months, where you once again grow rapidly. During this period you grow two to four times as fast as you were before. This period of rapid growth takes place in stage three of development. The average age for boys to rapidly grow is fourteen, so the fact that you haven’t started your rapid growth is not usual. In fact, so far you are average.
No one knows exactly what triggers puberty. We know much of the chemical sequences which cause the body to start growing, but we don’t know the mechanism that causes the body to decide that today I’m going to start changing from a boy to a man. People suspect that nutrition plays a role. Boys who eat well then to develop sooner than boys who don’t get adequate food. But even this is a broad generality. There are exceptions to every rule tried. Most boys in developed countries tend to eat well, many eat too well and are fat. So unless you are starving yourself, improving your nutrition won’t hurt but it isn’t likely to cause a major change.
Similarly, exercises of any sort is good for your health. “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (I Timothy 4:8). But like nutrition, it isn’t going to speed up the process of your development.
You can use the Tanner Stage Calculator for Boys to determine how far you have developed so far. Your rapid growth will come when you reach stage 3. What you need most at this point is patience.