Our teenage son has recently had a growth spurt and now he is walking like an old man – what can we do to help him?
Regular trips to the shoe shop and trousers that seem to shrink in the wash are features of living with teenagers. In their teens, children put on an amazing growth spurt to reach their adult height. Girls usually do this more gradually from 8 to 14, but in boys it often occurs more suddenly between 13 and 16 and they can grow taller by as much as 9 cm in a year!
This phenomenal growth starts at the outside of the body and works in. Hands and feet are the first to expand so needing new shoes is often the first sign of trouble. Next the arms and legs grow longer, but even here the ‘outside in’ rule applies and the shin bones lengthen before the thigh and the forearm before the upper arm. Finally the spine grows and right at the end the chest and shoulders of boys broaden out and in girls their hips and pelvis widen.