Estimating kids height

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would cause a kid to not grow as tall as their parents? Obviously other relatives’ genetics come into play. My daughter was 5’.75” at her 14th birthday (so I suspect she’s done growing as she got her period when she was 12.5). Her birth mom is 5’3” and her birth dad is 5’5”. Is it the dad’s height, which is short for a man but not overly short for their race and age.

genetics and diet

I'm Korean American. 50 years ago, most Koreans were pretty short. Today, Korean young adults are relatively tall (compared to older Koreans). It's the diet. They have more abundant food, especially meat, today than years past. But, along with that, come obesity. There's more obesity in Korea than before. There's a height difference between North Koreans and South Koreans. Same ethnicity, similar gene pool, but a measurable height difference. It's the diet.

Agree on this. More meat, dairy, and fortified foods. My spouse and close siblings grow up in third world country. When the immigrated here the younger siblings were Preschool age. Same mom and dad, but the younger siblings are much taller than the older siblings that grew up in poor country with less food variety and abundance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would cause a kid to not grow as tall as their parents? Obviously other relatives’ genetics come into play. My daughter was 5’.75” at her 14th birthday (so I suspect she’s done growing as she got her period when she was 12.5). Her birth mom is 5’3” and her birth dad is 5’5”. Is it the dad’s height, which is short for a man but not overly short for their race and age.

genetics and diet

I'm Korean American. 50 years ago, most Koreans were pretty short. Today, Korean young adults are relatively tall (compared to older Koreans). It's the diet. They have more abundant food, especially meat, today than years past. But, along with that, come obesity. There's more obesity in Korea than before. There's a height difference between North Koreans and South Koreans. Same ethnicity, similar gene pool, but a measurable height difference. It's the diet.

PP here. We are actually Korean too! So my question is…my daughter has been raised here since she was an infant, on a completely American diet (for better or worse). Shouldn’t that have given her a better chance of being taller than her birth parents? As it stands, she’ll be lucky to eke out that extra quarter inch to make it to 5’1”. She is shorter than both her birth parents and seems to have stopped growing.

[Anonymous]

PP again. I realized you might’ve thought I said DD is 5’7”. She’s not- she’s 5’ and 3/4”, hence why I was wondering how she’d end up shorter than her parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a fine population-wide estimate, but may not be accurate for all kids. Mine was at the 75th percentile until she shot up between age 2.5-3, and has been at the 95th percentile since. She hasn't hit puberty yet, so time will tell, but likely she'll be closer to the 95th percentile range as an adult (5'8"-5'10").

These were my stats as a kid. I stayed 95% until puberty and then topped out at 5' 5". Mom is 5' 10", dad is 5' 8". My sister is 5' 2". You never know.

PP here. Absolutely, and what I tell people is it can really vary depending on when girls hit puberty. For us, DH is 6’2” and I’m 5’6”, but DD also has grandmothers and aunts on both of our sides that were over 5’9”, which is very tall for that generation. So she’s definitely got a family full of tall women and I wouldn’t be surprised if she stayed on that trajectory. But only time will tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would cause a kid to not grow as tall as their parents? Obviously other relatives’ genetics come into play. My daughter was 5’.75” at her 14th birthday (so I suspect she’s done growing as she got her period when she was 12.5). Her birth mom is 5’3” and her birth dad is 5’5”. Is it the dad’s height, which is short for a man but not overly short for their race and age.

genetics and diet

I'm Korean American. 50 years ago, most Koreans were pretty short. Today, Korean young adults are relatively tall (compared to older Koreans). It's the diet. They have more abundant food, especially meat, today than years past. But, along with that, come obesity. There's more obesity in Korea than before. There's a height difference between North Koreans and South Koreans. Same ethnicity, similar gene pool, but a measurable height difference. It's the diet.

Agree on this. More meat, dairy, and fortified foods. My spouse and close siblings grow up in third world country. When the immigrated here the younger siblings were Preschool age. Same mom and dad, but the younger siblings are much taller than the older siblings that grew up in poor country with less food variety and abundance

Yes to this. I am also originally from another country and our family had a turn of fortunes and the younger siblings just had better food and abundance. My older brother is 5'2 (there was prob some failure to thrive issues here due to poor nutrition) and my younger one born after we became better off is 5'9.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would cause a kid to not grow as tall as their parents? Obviously other relatives’ genetics come into play. My daughter was 5’.75” at her 14th birthday (so I suspect she’s done growing as she got her period when she was 12.5). Her birth mom is 5’3” and her birth dad is 5’5”. Is it the dad’s height, which is short for a man but not overly short for their race and age.

genetics and diet

I'm Korean American. 50 years ago, most Koreans were pretty short. Today, Korean young adults are relatively tall (compared to older Koreans). It's the diet. They have more abundant food, especially meat, today than years past. But, along with that, come obesity. There's more obesity in Korea than before. There's a height difference between North Koreans and South Koreans. Same ethnicity, similar gene pool, but a measurable height difference. It's the diet.

PP here. We are actually Korean too! So my question is…my daughter has been raised here since she was an infant, on a completely American diet (for better or worse). Shouldn’t that have given her a better chance of being taller than her birth parents? As it stands, she’ll be lucky to eke out that extra quarter inch to make it to 5’1”. She is shorter than both her birth parents and seems to have stopped growing.

It's not a hard and fast rule but it applies to the general population. Of course, specific individuals may not follow the pattern.

Your DD may have some issues that predisposes her to being short. It could be celiac issues or a reduction in growth hormones - not enough to be super short, but lacking enough to be taller. Maybe something that happened in utero? Hard to tell.

I grew up here, but we were poor and didn't have a lot of meat, and I remember being hungry a lot when I was little.