How big will I be?
If my cells are always dividing into new cells, why don’t I grow bigger
and bigger and never stop?
That won’t happen! One reason is that even though my body makes new
cells, other cells wear out. But there is another and more important
reason I won’t just keep on growing.
In my body are tiny organs called glands. Glands make things I need. I
have tear glands, oil glands, sweat glands, glands that help me digest
my food, glands that protect me from sickness, glands that make my heart
beat faster. And I have
glands that help me grow.
One gland, the pituitary gland, has charge over all the other glands. It
directs them so that they work together. These glands make things that
cause me to grow or stop growing.
Someday, when I’m about 20, my glands will tell my body to stop growing.
Then I won’t get any bigger.
When I’m grown up, my legs will be about five times as long as they were
when I was a baby. My arms will be about four times as long. My head
will be about two times as big.
How big will I be?
I’ll be as big as ME!
Till age 11, boys and girls grow at the same speed. Then girls grow
faster for a few years. But boys catch up. Most grown men are taller
than most grown women.
