Pediatrician told my son he will be 6 feet tall!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry--the doctor shouldn't have said that. Height is mostly genetic.

We took our son to the doctor for genetic testing for Marfan (negative) but height came up because it's marker for that condition.

I recall something like kids may be taller than their tallest parent, but it won't be extreme - 2-3 inches.

My niece had Marfan Syndrome and had very long legs. Another symptom is being very skinny. Sadly she died at 11 years old because her heart was so damaged. Her brother is grown and is 6’5” but luckily he does not have it. I would recommend parents with kids off the charts tall and skinny to discuss Marfan’s with their pediatrician

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My doc told my son he’s likely going to be 6’1 or 6’2 since he was about 10, and voila, at 15 he’s 6’1. It turns out those docs and their medical degrees often know more than parents!

It’s like gambling, the doctor will predict accurately some of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh.

I hate those charts and growth predictors.

My DS is 14.5 and 5’9”, convinced he will be 6’0”+ since some online calculator say so (and his older brother is, sure). But pretty much anyone could look at my DS and realize he is about done growing. I don’t say anything about it to him either way, but I’m 99.5% sure he is going to be disappointed.

The online calculators are one thing but it is another thing for a pediatrician to be doing it…..I’m sure the ped didn’t mean anything by it, but probably not a good idea.

Boys continue to grow thru their teenage years. My DS grew in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My doc told my son he’s likely going to be 6’1 or 6’2 since he was about 10, and voila, at 15 he’s 6’1. It turns out those docs and their medical degrees often know more than parents!

It’s like gambling, the doctor will predict accurately some of the time.

there are charts for this and they can make a very educated guess based on the growth pattern. Just like professional card player knows all the odds. Professional card players and doctors win more than random parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The doctor was a twit. Not uncommon.

Indeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS just turned 13 and is 5’4”. He’s started puberty and It seems he’s an early bloomer.

We went for his annual physical and the pediatrician told him he’s likely to be 6’. My son was thrilled! The thing is DH and I are both short. I’m 5’2” and DH is 5’5”. There’s no way DS is going to be 6’. I’m shocked that the pediatrician would say something like that.

DS was going on about it after the appointment and I just kept reminding him that there’s no way to accurately predict height and that he needs to be okay with however tall he end up being.

Just a vent…

Unless they xrayed his growth plates to estimate the doctor is stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS just turned 13 and is 5’4”. He’s started puberty and It seems he’s an early bloomer.

We went for his annual physical and the pediatrician told him he’s likely to be 6’. My son was thrilled! The thing is DH and I are both short. I’m 5’2” and DH is 5’5”. There’s no way DS is going to be 6’. I’m shocked that the pediatrician would say something like that.

DS was going on about it after the appointment and I just kept reminding him that there’s no way to accurately predict height and that he needs to be okay with however tall he end up being.

Just a vent…

Unless they xrayed his growth plates to estimate the doctor is stupid.

I’d bet a million dollars the doctor actually said “here is where you are on the growth curve, if you stay in this percentile you will be 6ft tall”.

Mom is freaking out because either she wasn’t in the room or didn’t understand what the doctor was saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My doc told my son he’s likely going to be 6’1 or 6’2 since he was about 10, and voila, at 15 he’s 6’1. It turns out those docs and their medical degrees often know more than parents!

It’s like gambling, the doctor will predict accurately some of the time.

there are charts for this and they can make a very educated guess based on the growth pattern. Just like professional card player knows all the odds. Professional card players and doctors win more than random parents.

It’s BS though without taking into account parental height. So much is due to timing of puberty. If a kid had late puberty they will be taller than otherwise indicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, height at 14 doesn't predict at all. I know people like my brother who stopped growing at 15ish and some people like my cousin who didn't hit his big growth spurt until 16 and grew while in college.

Right! My dh was 6’0 when he graduated high school and 6’2 when he graduated college. I know a lot of boys who grew in college

Height at 14 is actually predictive of height at adulthood but it’s not a perfect correlation. You’re talking as if you have a very limited understanding of variability and statistics.

The doctor wasn’t wrong that the kid will likely be 6ft absent other information, but it’s not guaranteed he’ll be 6ft. Perhaps he should have explained better, but still it’s obvious to most people what he meant.

And the key necessary info that he was missing was 1) parental height and 2) hope much time the kid had left to grow

[Anonymous]

13 is very young for a boy. He has so much growing left to do.

[Anonymous]

My son was a smidge under 5 feet tall at 13, but hadn’t hit puberty yet. My ped said anywhere between 5’8”-5’11”. I feel like a range is safer bc she’s probably right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, height at 14 doesn't predict at all. I know people like my brother who stopped growing at 15ish and some people like my cousin who didn't hit his big growth spurt until 16 and grew while in college.

Right! My dh was 6’0 when he graduated high school and 6’2 when he graduated college. I know a lot of boys who grew in college

This. My dh grew an inch between 20 and 21 when he reached his final height (5'11). One of my brothers grew (6'2) until he was 20, the other was full height (5'9) at 17. My 17 yo is 5'9ish and growth has been incremental for 2 years. My 15 yo is 6' and has at least 2 more years of growing, according to xrays.

[Anonymous]

My son’s pediatrician gave us estimates for years and they gradually went lower and lower. First it was 5’10” and I laughed out loud at that one. Then 5’8” and I chuckled again. Then 5’6” which sounded right to me. My son is 20 and he’s 5’5” ish.

OP- Just explain that those are predictions and not set in stone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My doc told my son he’s likely going to be 6’1 or 6’2 since he was about 10, and voila, at 15 he’s 6’1. It turns out those docs and their medical degrees often know more than parents!

It’s like gambling, the doctor will predict accurately some of the time.

there are charts for this and they can make a very educated guess based on the growth pattern. Just like professional card player knows all the odds. Professional card players and doctors win more than random parents.

It’s BS though without taking into account parental height. So much is due to timing of puberty. If a kid had late puberty they will be taller than otherwise indicated.

Not always. My kid looked like a child when he started HS. He looked like he had skipped a few grades. The other boys his age looked like young men already. Mine ended up to be 5’5” which isn’t too far off from his parents who are around 5’3” and 5’4”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He probably looked at a chart, saw that he was in the 85 percentile, and if it holds over time he’ll be 6 ft tall. No need to get worked up about it, I don’t understand what you’re venting about.

Might be a good time to explain your kid how predictions, variability and genetics work. At 13 the basics should have been covered in math and science classes.

My kid was 20% at 13 and 90% at 18. He was also 95% at 2 years old and kept going down (40-20%) until growth spurt at 16.

Percentile will be high at 13 if kid grows early/hits puberty early and a kid that is a late grower will be average or low percentile at 13, and move up percentile as he grows …while the early grower moves down percentile.

+1

My DS was 30th percentile for height at 13. He is 90th percentile for height at age 16 and is still growing. Late bloomer.

Some of his friends were near their final heights already at 13.

And of course most boys are somewhere in between.

How do you know that his friends were near their final heights at 13 — if they are all around 16 now? Is there something that indicates which boys will continue to grow into their late teens and very early 20s — and which ones won’t?