Teen Boy Concerned About Height (lack of)
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
There's no point in borrowing trouble and worrying about th
I agree. Help him accept and love who he is now. Growth hormones, hanging every night, and pumping him full of meat and milk in the hope that he might get one more inch sends him the message that his health doesn't matter and that he is not good enough the way he is. ( In addition to the physical and psychological effects of all that!) In the real world, as adults, height does not affect your life re: employment and success. And as for a partner, there is a lid for every pot. x1000. I wouldn't indulge this very much. A few minutes of sympathetic listening to worries, then shut it down. Your message should be: We don't know what will happen, so there's no use worrying about this, especially as there is absolutely nothing to worry about here--there is nothing wrong with being 5'6". I'd treat this very much like a desire for a pony. Yep, ponies are nice. In a perfect world, we'd all have ponies. Nope, not going to feel sorry for you because you don't have one. My DH is 5’8. My 2 best friends from HS (both attractive, successful women, maybe 5’5 and 5’8) also married shorter men, around my DH’s height. They are also attractive and successful. 1 turned out to get divorced, but that was unrelated to height. |
Anonymous
| We parents, used to make jokes about the water in the school when our sons were younger and shorter. Every team was bigger than us. Then one day around 9th grade, they all grew. Now, as seniors, the average height is easily 6'. The short ones are 5'8". It happens. |
Anonymous
| I find it hard to believe that eating non organic meat is going to make you meaningfully taller. May make you sick so I would stick with organic. Just sayin |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
|
As an adult, I've been close to two fairly short men - when I say close to I mean worked with one regularly and was friends with another. They are around 5'4" probably. One is awesome. Funny, smart, kind, self-confident, and a great athlete. He's married and has two kids. The other is a bit of dick. He comes off as funny but is actually kind of angry. He's single, no kids, but doing fine professionally. Their success is directly related to their personalities.
Sometimes I wish I would have ended up with the awesome one. I'm super short myself and I admit that I took genetics into account. I ended up marrying someone over 6' tall in the hopes of getting kids taller than me. My DH is a good guy but the other guy might have been better. I shouldn't have been shallow. |
Anonymous
x1000. I wouldn't indulge this very much. A few minutes of sympathetic listening to worries, then shut it down. Your message should be: We don't know what will happen, so there's no use worrying about this, especially as there is absolutely nothing to worry about here--there is nothing wrong with being 5'6". I'd treat this very much like a desire for a pony. Yep, ponies are nice. In a perfect world, we'd all have ponies. Nope, not going to feel sorry for you because you don't have one. My DH is 5’8. My 2 best friends from HS (both attractive, successful women, maybe 5’5 and 5’8) also married shorter men, around my DH’s height. They are also attractive and successful. 1 turned out to get divorced, but that was unrelated to height. Plus they don't give growth hormones in the USA unless your child is off the charts. Trust me, we tried, specialist after specialist, but still minimally on the chart. We ended up going abroad for growth hormone treatment. Even with regular flights it was cheaper than in the USA. |
Anonymous
IMO, that's a self fulfilling prophecy because of confidence. Tall men and prettier women tend to be more confident. A not so pretty woman and not so tall man can be confident and earn a lot, too. There are some female CEOs who are not that great looking and earn a lot. One of the high tech companies I used to work for had a female CEO. She was nothing to look at, and was super short (like 5'). But she was whip smart and confident. The same company had a male CFO who was super short -- 5'4 if that. He was a really nice, personable guy. |
Anonymous
| I am a mother of two very young boys. Their father is 5'8" and self conscious about it. He worries that our sons may grow up to be short (as they have both tall and short genes in their family tree). I don't think that there is any point worrying about things you can't change. However, it's normal to want advantages for your kids, and height is definitely an advantage for men. I suggest focusing on building your son's self-esteem regardless, as that is an advantage that you can nurture. |
Anonymous
My DH is 5’8. My 2 best friends from HS (both attractive, successful women, maybe 5’5 and 5’8) also married shorter men, around my DH’s height. They are also attractive and successful. 1 turned out to get divorced, but that was unrelated to height. Plus they don't give growth hormones in the USA unless your child is off the charts. Trust me, we tried, specialist after specialist, but still minimally on the chart. We ended up going abroad for growth hormone treatment. Even with regular flights it was cheaper than in the USA. What country? My son is just barely on the growth chart. |
Anonymous
| He'll be fine whatever his height is, and will end up with a partner that loves him for who he is. Teach him that being himself is all he needs to be. |
Anonymous
| FWIW, I am a 6'1" man. I was 5'4" my freshman year in HS. Things change. You control what you can control and let everything else come (or not). |
Anonymous
| OP, I am 5'4" and DH is almost 6', but no quite. DS, now 20, is a bit over 5'10". He had a constitutional growth delay, which it doesn't sounds that your ds has, as he had a growth spurt. Honestly I do think your DS will still grow, you pointed to Tanner's scale, he is only beginning puberty. But, height is a genetic thing to and eating thing too. Make sure he eats enough, that was key with DS, he had to increase eating, he never ate much of anything. Cousin ate burgers and pizza all day long, parents are, mom 5'6" and dad 5'6" too. Sometimes I feel like, wth, genetics my something... then I remember that DS always had trouble gaining weight and ate nothing. So, I think it is both, genes and nutrition. It doesn't seem that your DS will stay 5'3", but provide plenty of good food. |
Anonymous
|
When my DS was late to start puberty (and everyone was zooming up past him in height, including the girls), we did go the medical route to ensure everything was okay, but I also had read a study in a legit nutritional journal comparing using hormones to jump start puberty to supplementing with vitamin A. The results indicated that vitamin A supplementation was shown to be effective.
Now vitamin A can be harmful in high doses and you can't pump your kid full of it, or risk liver damage and other issues. But I did start giving DS a multi-vitamin every night that contained 100% of the RDA for vitamin A and I have to say he started puberty soon after. It's probably coincidence, and he was going to start anyway, but I thought it was worth a shot. Since OP mentioned her son may be Tanner stage 1 at 14 (so therefore hasn't started puberty), I thought I'd throw that out. |
Anonymous
PP, if you are concerned, go to a pediatric endocrinologist see if a growth hormone stimulation test is warranted. My DS was barely on the charts most of his life. Since 6th grade, everyone else has grown but he stayed the same. OP has a 14 year old who is worried about being 5'2; my 13 year old was 4'7. The growth hormone stimulation test requires several hours. First, they give the child some IV meds intended to stimulate the pituitary, and then they draw blood at 30 minute intervals. If your child is not producing enough growth hormone even after stimulation, you can get growth hormone treatment approved. |
Anonymous
| Didn’t read all the posts, but ADHD meds can stunt also. So if he’s on them, something to consider. |