When did your kids fall into their natural growth percentile?

[Anonymous]

Op - will add both DH and I hit puberty late. Closer to 13-14 years old. I think my DH grew 2-3” in college.

[Anonymous]

Completely impossible to predict, although it seems most kids end up around what you would expect (based on parents’ heights- parental midpoint formula etc) in the end…regardless of growth patterns as a kid. Less predictable if there is a drastic variation in parents’ heights (for example a 6’2” dad and 5’2” mom). And occasionally there ends up being a big surprise- kid taking after someone perhaps more distant in the family tree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to know. I have a son who was always off the growth chart (99+) and at 18 is 6-5. We are tall though. While it's not all about parental height, it's a lot about parental height. But your kid could be an outlier and much taller in the end than your own heights would have predicted. Your height of 5-7 also indicates some height somewhere in your family.

The general thing I have seen with families I know is if there is a short mom, the sons typically don't get that tall even if dad is tall. I think maternal height and maternal family height is more of a predictor of a potentially super tall boy.

Cue the stories of 5-1 mom with 6-4 son.

I think this is largely true.

I'm super short, like 5'; DH is tall 6'3", and DS is ~5'11", while DD is ~5'6". Both are still growing (due to late puberty), but DD will probably be a lot taller than average compared to DS.

DH's dad is average height, but his mom is tall, as was his maternal grandfather.

My dad is "tallish" for our ethnicity, while my mom is super short. My brother is super short.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op - will add both DH and I hit puberty late. Closer to 13-14 years old. I think my DH grew 2-3” in college.

He'll be tall.

My Asian friend is 5'6"; her DH is 5'11". Their 17 yr old son is 6'2"; daughter is 5'8".

[Anonymous]

Both my kids were large at birth and the first couple years. DS settled down to about the 50th percentile by age 3 and stuck on that curve until late in HS when he had a late growth spurt and is now 6'2" (taller than anyone in our extended family on both sides). DD settled at the 95th percentile by age 3 and stuck on that curve until maybe 6th grade when she stopped growing at 5'6". Now at 19, 5'6" is 75th %ile so she's tallish (same height as me) but not in the "oh, she's tall!" way she was as a kid. She really wants to be 5'8" which is what her growth curve would have predicted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hard to know. I have a son who was always off the growth chart (99+) and at 18 is 6-5. We are tall though. While it's not all about parental height, it's a lot about parental height. But your kid could be an outlier and much taller in the end than your own heights would have predicted. Your height of 5-7 also indicates some height somewhere in your family.

The general thing I have seen with families I know is if there is a short mom, the sons typically don't get that tall even if dad is tall. I think maternal height and maternal family height is more of a predictor of a potentially super tall boy.

Cue the stories of 5-1 mom with 6-4 son.

I think this is largely true.

I'm super short, like 5'; DH is tall 6'3", and DS is ~5'11", while DD is ~5'6". Both are still growing (due to late puberty), but DD will probably be a lot taller than average compared to DS.

DH's dad is average height, but his mom is tall, as was his maternal grandfather.

My dad is "tallish" for our ethnicity, while my mom is super short. My brother is super short.

This is BS. There is no way mom’s height is related to sons’s height more so than dad’s or daughters’.

You can find examples of everything, but it does not make it true. If your son is 5’11” he is tall and definitely took after your husband and not you (since you are super short). Both your kids seem to have taken from both of you and ended up somewhere in the middle (closer to dad maybe).

[Anonymous]

I thought I read somewhere (DCUM, probably) that children tend to take after the parent who is an outlier in some way for their sex- so a short man or a tall woman.

One of my children was adopted and her birth parents are short, but it’s her birth dad who is very short at 5’4”, while her birth mom is 5’2.” DD is 5’1”- her percentiles as a baby/young kid were like 10th percentile height and 95% for weight, but at 16, she is now like 25% height and 50th for weight.

My son rose to percentiles in the 90s as a toddler and has hovered between 90-95th percentile now at 14. While I’m not tall at 5’3”, there’s height on his dad side with almost all close male relatives and one woman.

[Anonymous]

Op - interestingly I have never really looked at it but I am around 95th percentile for height in the US. Not sure what I would be for Asian countries but probably like 99th percentile.

So it would make sense that even though DH is average height DS could end up much taller than him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought I read somewhere (DCUM, probably) that children tend to take after the parent who is an outlier in some way for their sex- so a short man or a tall woman.

One of my children was adopted and her birth parents are short, but it’s her birth dad who is very short at 5’4”, while her birth mom is 5’2.” DD is 5’1”- her percentiles as a baby/young kid were like 10th percentile height and 95% for weight, but at 16, she is now like 25% height and 50th for weight.

My son rose to percentiles in the 90s as a toddler and has hovered between 90-95th percentile now at 14. While I’m not tall at 5’3”, there’s height on his dad side with almost all close male relatives and one woman.

I'm off the bottom of the charts, to the point where I was tested for growth hormone issues (I'm fine) and one of my kids has always been tall, one of my kids is average, and one is short-ish but not as short as me. All girls.

For every tendency you can find counter-examples.

[Anonymous]

From what I’ve seen as my kids have grown up- childhood height patterns often don’t carry past puberty.

My DS had a friend who was off the charts for height & weight pretty much since birth- the kind of kid who looks years older than he is and people were always shocked when they learned his age. He ended up at 5’11”. Around what you’d expect based on his parents’ heights.

Another kid was always very tall (tallest in the class etc) through childhood despite having very short parents (maybe 5’6” & 5’2”). Ended up 5’8”ish.

Yet still another kid was always very tall with shorter parents, and people assumed he’d slow down in growth. Nope- Ended up 6’3”- takes after a tall grandfather apparently. LOL.

My kids are all pretty average sized- no interesting stories for us, but has been fun to watch all the kids grow up. It really is pretty unpredictable from what I’ve seen!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought I read somewhere (DCUM, probably) that children tend to take after the parent who is an outlier in some way for their sex- so a short man or a tall woman.

One of my children was adopted and her birth parents are short, but it’s her birth dad who is very short at 5’4”, while her birth mom is 5’2.” DD is 5’1”- her percentiles as a baby/young kid were like 10th percentile height and 95% for weight, but at 16, she is now like 25% height and 50th for weight.

My son rose to percentiles in the 90s as a toddler and has hovered between 90-95th percentile now at 14. While I’m not tall at 5’3”, there’s height on his dad side with almost all close male relatives and one woman.

I'm off the bottom of the charts, to the point where I was tested for growth hormone issues (I'm fine) and one of my kids has always been tall, one of my kids is average, and one is short-ish but not as short as me. All girls.

For every tendency you can find counter-examples.

+1 and most people don't have enough kids to see a real genetic pattern. My aunt (short and stout) and uncle (long and lean) had 9 kids and it was funny to see how they basically made two models -- half of the kids took after mom and half took after dad. But the first two looked like dad so if they'd stopped there you'd think dad's genes were really dominant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hard to know. I have a son who was always off the growth chart (99+) and at 18 is 6-5. We are tall though. While it's not all about parental height, it's a lot about parental height. But your kid could be an outlier and much taller in the end than your own heights would have predicted. Your height of 5-7 also indicates some height somewhere in your family.

The general thing I have seen with families I know is if there is a short mom, the sons typically don't get that tall even if dad is tall. I think maternal height and maternal family height is more of a predictor of a potentially super tall boy.

Cue the stories of 5-1 mom with 6-4 son.

I think this is largely true.

I'm super short, like 5'; DH is tall 6'3", and DS is ~5'11", while DD is ~5'6". Both are still growing (due to late puberty), but DD will probably be a lot taller than average compared to DS.

DH's dad is average height, but his mom is tall, as was his maternal grandfather.

My dad is "tallish" for our ethnicity, while my mom is super short. My brother is super short.

This is BS. There is no way mom’s height is related to sons’s height more so than dad’s or daughters’.

You can find examples of everything, but it does not make it true. If your son is 5’11” he is tall and definitely took after your husband and not you (since you are super short). Both your kids seem to have taken from both of you and ended up somewhere in the middle (closer to dad maybe).

Not really, particuarly if white. Average height for a white guy.

[Anonymous]

My DD sees a pediatric endocrinologist. Per the endo, there are three stages of child height development: (1) infancy - birth to around age 2 (which is determined primarily by uterine factors); (2) childhood - age 2-3 to puberty (which is determined primarily by nutritional and environmental factors); (3) adolescence - puberty to adulthood.

Every child has a "genetic height potential," which assuming normal nutrition and developmental conditions, most kids reach within around 3 inches. Early or late puberty can change that, as can other health and environmental conditions. A 4 year old is on their childhood growth trajectory and should remain on it until they hit puberty. Assuming normal puberty, they'll end up roughly around their genetic potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought I read somewhere (DCUM, probably) that children tend to take after the parent who is an outlier in some way for their sex- so a short man or a tall woman.

One of my children was adopted and her birth parents are short, but it’s her birth dad who is very short at 5’4”, while her birth mom is 5’2.” DD is 5’1”- her percentiles as a baby/young kid were like 10th percentile height and 95% for weight, but at 16, she is now like 25% height and 50th for weight.

My son rose to percentiles in the 90s as a toddler and has hovered between 90-95th percentile now at 14. While I’m not tall at 5’3”, there’s height on his dad side with almost all close male relatives and one woman.

I'm off the bottom of the charts, to the point where I was tested for growth hormone issues (I'm fine) and one of my kids has always been tall, one of my kids is average, and one is short-ish but not as short as me. All girls.

For every tendency you can find counter-examples.

+1 and most people don't have enough kids to see a real genetic pattern. My aunt (short and stout) and uncle (long and lean) had 9 kids and it was funny to see how they basically made two models -- half of the kids took after mom and half took after dad. But the first two looked like dad so if they'd stopped there you'd think dad's genes were really dominant.

+2 my DH is from a family of 7 kids and the variation with that number of kids is interesting. FIL is 6’0” and MIL is 5’4”- pretty normal heights. Their 3 sons range from 5’10”-6’2” and 4 DD range from 5’3”- 5’8”. Doesn’t seem like an enormous range offhand, but big difference between 5’3” and 5’8” female for example, or even 5’10” and 6’2” for a guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD sees a pediatric endocrinologist. Per the endo, there are three stages of child height development: (1) infancy - birth to around age 2 (which is determined primarily by uterine factors); (2) childhood - age 2-3 to puberty (which is determined primarily by nutritional and environmental factors); (3) adolescence - puberty to adulthood.

Every child has a "genetic height potential," which assuming normal nutrition and developmental conditions, most kids reach within around 3 inches. Early or late puberty can change that, as can other health and environmental conditions. A 4 year old is on their childhood growth trajectory and should remain on it until they hit puberty. Assuming normal puberty, they'll end up roughly around their genetic potential.

Op - this is very interesting! Thanks! I have been somewhat surprised that my 4 year old has stayed on this height/weight percentile his whole life. Seems like it is just how he is built. He is not chunky at all. Very lean. At 4 he wears a size 13 shoe and is growing out of 6T clothes.