How Does Your Kid Stack Up?

KoreaTown clinics offer test to gauge future height of children

by Myoung Hoon Suh

It’s the latest fad to hit the states from South Korea and it has nothing to do with tart frozen yogurt. But it has been good business for KoreanTown’s medical clinics.

It’s a test that predicts how tall children are likely to grow. With the average Korean male standing 5 feet, 8 inches – more than an inch shorter than average American – more Korean parents are having their children’s bone growth tested.

“Concerned that their children might end up getting bullied by bigger children, many Korean parents are particularly keen to know how tall their children are going to be,” said Hyungsuk Choi, chief of the medical staff at Samra Acupuncture Spinal Center on West Olympic Boulevard, where about 300 children have been tested and around 100 are now assessed monthly.

The test has been popular for 10 years in Korea and is offered by Western pediatricians when stunted growth is suspected. It involves X-raying a child’s hand to examine growth plates – the area at the end of bones at the joints where growth occurs.

Western doctors will prescribe hormones to children when stunted growth is diagnosed. But Samra, given that most of the children tested are found to be normal, the foucus is on better diet – if needed – to boost a shorter child’s height.

Justin Park took his 11 year-old son to be tested because he was one of the shortest boys in his class. But the growth plate test showed that the child was just fine and should grow substantially taller.

“He avoided playing basketball and playing outside,” sand Park, whose remarks were translated from Korean. “After the test he became more outgoing because he had the confidence he could be tall”