(Yet another) Question about boy’s puberty

[Anonymous]

Son is now 19, no spurt for him either, just slow and steady

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love these threads. I'll read every one of them.

My DS is 13.5 with few signs of puberty (only slight BO if not showered), still losing his baby teeth, and is 5'1".

I know he's in the range of normal but it's good to hear other people's experiences. He feels like a Lilliputian in a world of giants. He's not, of course. There are other boys his same size but he feels tiny right now.

OP here- is the presence of baby teeth an indicator that puberty hasn’t really started? Mine still has 4 or 5 baby teeth (all are loose though) and the orthodontist didn’t indicate whether this is considered late or not.

My son plays basketball and baseball. Obviously basketball attracts tall kids but even in baseball…there are 6’ 12 year olds. That might be skewing my son’s perspective 😬

All normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The growth spurt usually comes later- toward the middle/end of puberty. Usually the fastest growth is about 2yrs after puberty begins. 12 is on the early side for a growth spurt, for boys.

My DS was on a similar timeline and didn’t start his growth spurt until around 13.5-14.

My 12yo is similar to your DS- has beginning signs but no growth spurt yet, and we don’t expect it for awhile.

There is such a wide range of normal. A lot of boys do have that big spurt at 12 but plenty of others won’t until 13-14 or even later.

All of DC's friends started shooting up at 12. I don't think it's on the early side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love these threads. I'll read every one of them.

My DS is 13.5 with few signs of puberty (only slight BO if not showered), still losing his baby teeth, and is 5'1".

I know he's in the range of normal but it's good to hear other people's experiences. He feels like a Lilliputian in a world of giants. He's not, of course. There are other boys his same size but he feels tiny right now.

My son was the exact same (including height and still had a baby tooth) six months ago. He just turned 14 last week and is 5’4”. Still small but has grown 3in in 6 months and seems to look taller every day so He is hopeful. No outward signs of puberty yet at all (voice etc) although he mentioned some changes to DH-still looks like a little kid and is a beanpole (right about 100lbs).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love these threads. I'll read every one of them.

My DS is 13.5 with few signs of puberty (only slight BO if not showered), still losing his baby teeth, and is 5'1".

I know he's in the range of normal but it's good to hear other people's experiences. He feels like a Lilliputian in a world of giants. He's not, of course. There are other boys his same size but he feels tiny right now.

OP here- is the presence of baby teeth an indicator that puberty hasn’t really started? Mine still has 4 or 5 baby teeth (all are loose though) and the orthodontist didn’t indicate whether this is considered late or not.

My son plays basketball and baseball. Obviously basketball attracts tall kids but even in baseball…there are 6’ 12 year olds. That might be skewing my son’s perspective 😬

In my observation, teeth are kind of their own thing, definitely seem to have a genetic timeline, but not necessarily aligned with puberty. My son has a friend who is 6'2" ish and has so many baby teeth they can't start braces yet. My kids were both slow and steady growers, one boy, one girl and had lost all their baby teeth by the same age as each other. One really crazy coincidence was my kids each lost their first tooth at the exact same age, down to the day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Son is now 19, no spurt for him either, just slow and steady

I have another steady grower, will be interesting to see what happens.

My kids (one boy, one girl) were always tall and grew 3" or so per year. My daughter stopped at 14 (5'8"), never had a big growth spurt. From 13-14, my son grew over 4", but still didn't seem like a big spurt compared to an average year. He is between 6' and 6'1" now at 14.5y, and I guess this is a slower year, he hasn't grown much since turning 14, so maybe that was a spurt. I would be very surprised if he stopped growing at this point, but maybe he'll get 2" more over the next few years. My siblings and I all grew late (and are tall), so it's been interesting to watch.

I'd say between 13 and 14 is when most of my son's other pubertal changes happened. Hair and the like. His voice is deeper, but never had a cracking thing. He probably shaves weekly since about 14. He still looks noticeably young though. I don't think he could pass for any older than 15 even though he's a big guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The growth spurt usually comes later- toward the middle/end of puberty. Usually the fastest growth is about 2yrs after puberty begins. 12 is on the early side for a growth spurt, for boys.

My DS was on a similar timeline and didn’t start his growth spurt until around 13.5-14.

My 12yo is similar to your DS- has beginning signs but no growth spurt yet, and we don’t expect it for awhile.

There is such a wide range of normal. A lot of boys do have that big spurt at 12 but plenty of others won’t until 13-14 or even later.

All of DC's friends started shooting up at 12. I don't think it's on the early side.

Agreed. These threads tend to be (understandably) populated by parents of kids who are on the later side and so there is a lot of discussion and emphasis on boys who are late to grow. Which there are plenty of boys late to grow.

[Anonymous]

My oldest (17yr. old) was an early bloomer. He was the tallest kid in Elementary school and most of middle school. He's 6'0" now and hasn't grown anything in almost 2 years.

My youngest is 14yrs old and he's a slow bloomer. His voice started to changed just at the end of the summer, as well as growing some hair. He's finally getting taller and has grown 4 inches in the past couple of months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Son is now 19, no spurt for him either, just slow and steady

I have another steady grower, will be interesting to see what happens.

My kids (one boy, one girl) were always tall and grew 3" or so per year. My daughter stopped at 14 (5'8"), never had a big growth spurt. From 13-14, my son grew over 4", but still didn't seem like a big spurt compared to an average year. He is between 6' and 6'1" now at 14.5y, and I guess this is a slower year, he hasn't grown much since turning 14, so maybe that was a spurt. I would be very surprised if he stopped growing at this point, but maybe he'll get 2" more over the next few years. My siblings and I all grew late (and are tall), so it's been interesting to watch.

I'd say between 13 and 14 is when most of my son's other pubertal changes happened. Hair and the like. His voice is deeper, but never had a cracking thing. He probably shaves weekly since about 14. He still looks noticeably young though. I don't think he could pass for any older than 15 even though he's a big guy.

Wow! My 17-year old barely needs to shave and almost 15-year old zero facial hair and no voice change.

[Anonymous]

I have girls so this is just from observing classmates but it’s more like 13-15 when boys get their growth spurt. The 6th and 7th grade boys are mostly super short

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Son is now 19, no spurt for him either, just slow and steady

I have another steady grower, will be interesting to see what happens.

My kids (one boy, one girl) were always tall and grew 3" or so per year. My daughter stopped at 14 (5'8"), never had a big growth spurt. From 13-14, my son grew over 4", but still didn't seem like a big spurt compared to an average year. He is between 6' and 6'1" now at 14.5y, and I guess this is a slower year, he hasn't grown much since turning 14, so maybe that was a spurt. I would be very surprised if he stopped growing at this point, but maybe he'll get 2" more over the next few years. My siblings and I all grew late (and are tall), so it's been interesting to watch.

I'd say between 13 and 14 is when most of my son's other pubertal changes happened. Hair and the like. His voice is deeper, but never had a cracking thing. He probably shaves weekly since about 14. He still looks noticeably young though. I don't think he could pass for any older than 15 even though he's a big guy.

Wow! My 17-year old barely needs to shave and almost 15-year old zero facial hair and no voice change.

It’s really patchy and scraggly though 😂 and about once a week there’s just enough to be annoying, like one long chin hair and a patchy mustache. Ohhh, the awkward phase.

[Anonymous]

We found that more of the growth came after the voice drop (which was really sudden! Like three octaves in 6 weeks). Kid was 14 and went from 5'4 to 6' in about 6 months. He just turned 17 and is 6'2.

[Anonymous]

My son turned 16 over the summer. His voice did not drop until late last spring. He was always tall and then between 12-15 was sort of average and the shorter boys moved on past him. He’s now about 6’3” and seems to be getting taller each week. I would say he’s one of the tallest in his class.

He has peach fuzz on his upper lip but does not need to shave otherwise. Another late bloomer.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Still reading your replies- thank you!

For those who had kids who shot up in a matter of months, were there any signs that explosive growth was about to happen? Did your kids get growing pains or stretch marks?

My husband is 6’1” but said he doesn’t remember going through any major growth spurts- more slow and steady. I assume DS will also be slow and steady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Still reading your replies- thank you!

For those who had kids who shot up in a matter of months, were there any signs that explosive growth was about to happen? Did your kids get growing pains or stretch marks?

My husband is 6’1” but said he doesn’t remember going through any major growth spurts- more slow and steady. I assume DS will also be slow and steady.

My engineer DH loved to track our kids' growth, so I have his chart and for my DS, his growth was:

13 years: 4'11"
13.5 years: 5' 1"
14 years: 5'3"
14.5 years: 5'5"
15 years: 5'6"
15.5 years: 5'8"
16 years: 5'9"
16.5 years: 5'10"
18 years: 5'10 1/2"
19 years: 5'11"

He didn't start his growth spurt until 13 and then when he did, it was 4" in a year. He didn't seem to have growing pains and no stretch marks, he just ate like a horse.

Then for two years after that it was 3" a year. And then over the span of 3 years he grew an additional 2" and he seems to be done now at 19. So his growing was about 6 years in total and a foot gained in height. I believe 11"-12" is the average for puberty growth in boys.