[Growth spurts of the bone from infancy to puberty.]

Growth spurts of the bone occur during infancy(1 to 4 years)and puberty(12 to 17 years). While, generally, pubertal spurts appear to draw more attention than infantile spurts, the latter constitute maximum growth spurts. Indeed, those during the first year of life lead to a 1.5-fold increase in height or a height increase of 25 cm, thus representing the greatest of all growth spurts that occur in humans during their lifetimes. Again, while height growth continues through the first 3 years of life, nutrition represents the single greatest contributing factor to height growth during this period. Again, while, as with other organ primordia, the bone primordium is formed during the organogenesis stage, calcification becomes most active during the third trimester of pregnancy. Thus, this review provides an overview of bone growth in humans, in relation to bone/calcium metabolism, which begins in the fetal stage before birth and continues through infancy and puberty, finally leading to attainment of peak bone mass in humans.