No growth spurt in 14-year-old: should we worry?

[Anonymous]

Not OP here, but DS is 4'5", 12 y/o
Had scan of wrist done, showed normal bone age which surprised me. He's always late to lose teeth, looks way younger than his friends.
Anyone know if it's possible to be a late bloomer and also have a normal bone age?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP What is above average height to you. I find people on this forum have varying ideas of what average height is.


Also, feel free to bring it up with your pediatrician, but more than likely if there was an actual concern with your son's height it would have been flagged by now.

Not everyone ends up 6'2".

Op here. I’m 5’8”; his dad is 6’2”. So we are somewhat taller than average but not much.

That's a lot taller than average. Probably 90th percentile. Average for a woman is 5'4, 5'9 for a man.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done testosterone shots to jump start puberty in their son? This is different from growth hormones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, but DS is 4'5", 12 y/o
Had scan of wrist done, showed normal bone age which surprised me. He's always late to lose teeth, looks way younger than his friends.
Anyone know if it's possible to be a late bloomer and also have a normal bone age?

Are you and your spouse short?

Has he started puberty?

Those are the things I would be thinking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, but DS is 4'5", 12 y/o
Had scan of wrist done, showed normal bone age which surprised me. He's always late to lose teeth, looks way younger than his friends.
Anyone know if it's possible to be a late bloomer and also have a normal bone age?

Are you and your spouse short?

Has he started puberty?

Those are the things I would be thinking about.

I would get this looked into. My 10 yr old son is 4'5" and short for his age..but on curve at 25th percentile. What is your son's height percentile for age?

He also had a wrist X-ray done recently for a factor and the Dr made the comment "he has plenty of growing left to do." He had tons of space between all the bones and it looked like that of a 8 yr old. So for mine, I'm not worried about height since he has followed his curve so far and still has a lot of growing left. But for yours, he seems to be low on percentile plus with not as much growing left per x-ray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m the poster who has the son on growth hormone. I think you should see a pediatric endocrinologist who can do bloodwork to cut through the questions. Everyone on this board is telling their personal stories of growth. But that has nothing to do with your child.
Doing growth hormone should be mostly s medical decision based on blood test that shows the growth hormone levels.
Growth hormone is more than just growth. It impacts bone development, vitamin absorption etc. the most obvious sign can be short stature but that just ne symptom to identify if there might be a hormone level issue.
Seeing a couple of top specialists helped us.
It was a medical diagnosis after we had growth tip off the issue.

My son is 6 ft but again specialist suggests we continue - as the hormone is significant for bone - cholesterol/ etc all that other stuff.

NP. Could you please share who you went to?

My 17 year old son is done growing per his wrist X-ray. And he’s only 5’4”. I took him to endocrinologists and they all said to wait and see.

Now he also has high cholesterol. He is lean and very athletic. Something has gone wrong somewhere and none of the doctors I’ve taken him to have taken this seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the poster who has the son on growth hormone. I think you should see a pediatric endocrinologist who can do bloodwork to cut through the questions. Everyone on this board is telling their personal stories of growth. But that has nothing to do with your child.
Doing growth hormone should be mostly s medical decision based on blood test that shows the growth hormone levels.
Growth hormone is more than just growth. It impacts bone development, vitamin absorption etc. the most obvious sign can be short stature but that just ne symptom to identify if there might be a hormone level issue.
Seeing a couple of top specialists helped us.
It was a medical diagnosis after we had growth tip off the issue.

My son is 6 ft but again specialist suggests we continue - as the hormone is significant for bone - cholesterol/ etc all that other stuff.

NP. Could you please share who you went to?

My 17 year old son is done growing per his wrist X-ray. And he’s only 5’4”. I took him to endocrinologists and they all said to wait and see.

Now he also has high cholesterol. He is lean and very athletic. Something has gone wrong somewhere and none of the doctors I’ve taken him to have taken this seriously.

Why do you assume something has gone wrong?

I ask because my 16 yo is also only 5’4”, but our family is on the small side, and he hit puberty on the early side (11), which tends to be associated with shorter stature. He had a lot of growth from 11 to 13 (which put him briefly ahead of his peers in height), then has grown less than 2” since then. Aside from the early puberty growth spurt, he has followed his growth curve of 5-10th percentile pretty faithfully his whole life. Parents are both 25th percentile, but grandparents are more like 10th. They say height percentile at age 2 is pretty predictive of final height, and it certainly seems to be true for our son.

Given all of that and the fact that he’s healthy overall, we (and our ped) have no concern that anything is wrong medically. Worth considering if this is just your son’s normal, healthy trajectory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the poster who has the son on growth hormone. I think you should see a pediatric endocrinologist who can do bloodwork to cut through the questions. Everyone on this board is telling their personal stories of growth. But that has nothing to do with your child.
Doing growth hormone should be mostly s medical decision based on blood test that shows the growth hormone levels.
Growth hormone is more than just growth. It impacts bone development, vitamin absorption etc. the most obvious sign can be short stature but that just ne symptom to identify if there might be a hormone level issue.
Seeing a couple of top specialists helped us.
It was a medical diagnosis after we had growth tip off the issue.

My son is 6 ft but again specialist suggests we continue - as the hormone is significant for bone - cholesterol/ etc all that other stuff.

NP. Could you please share who you went to?

My 17 year old son is done growing per his wrist X-ray. And he’s only 5’4”. I took him to endocrinologists and they all said to wait and see.

Now he also has high cholesterol. He is lean and very athletic. Something has gone wrong somewhere and none of the doctors I’ve taken him to have taken this seriously.

Why do you assume something has gone wrong?

I ask because my 16 yo is also only 5’4”, but our family is on the small side, and he hit puberty on the early side (11), which tends to be associated with shorter stature. He had a lot of growth from 11 to 13 (which put him briefly ahead of his peers in height), then has grown less than 2” since then. Aside from the early puberty growth spurt, he has followed his growth curve of 5-10th percentile pretty faithfully his whole life. Parents are both 25th percentile, but grandparents are more like 10th. They say height percentile at age 2 is pretty predictive of final height, and it certainly seems to be true for our son.

Given all of that and the fact that he’s healthy overall, we (and our ped) have no concern that anything is wrong medically. Worth considering if this is just your son’s normal, healthy trajectory.

This is a healthy outlook.

Yes, your son is probably done growing. But that's ok. There's nothing wrong with him being 5'4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the poster who has the son on growth hormone. I think you should see a pediatric endocrinologist who can do bloodwork to cut through the questions. Everyone on this board is telling their personal stories of growth. But that has nothing to do with your child.
Doing growth hormone should be mostly s medical decision based on blood test that shows the growth hormone levels.
Growth hormone is more than just growth. It impacts bone development, vitamin absorption etc. the most obvious sign can be short stature but that just ne symptom to identify if there might be a hormone level issue.
Seeing a couple of top specialists helped us.
It was a medical diagnosis after we had growth tip off the issue.

My son is 6 ft but again specialist suggests we continue - as the hormone is significant for bone - cholesterol/ etc all that other stuff.

NP. Could you please share who you went to?

My 17 year old son is done growing per his wrist X-ray. And he’s only 5’4”. I took him to endocrinologists and they all said to wait and see.

Now he also has high cholesterol. He is lean and very athletic. Something has gone wrong somewhere and none of the doctors I’ve taken him to have taken this seriously.

How tall are you? DH?

[Anonymous]

Is early puberty for sure associated with ending up on the shorter side of your height potential? I thought they just reached their ultimate expected height earlier?

I have a tall son who hit puberty on the early side. He'll still be tall regardless but sounds like he would have been even taller if he hadn't hit puberty earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, but DS is 4'5", 12 y/o
Had scan of wrist done, showed normal bone age which surprised me. He's always late to lose teeth, looks way younger than his friends.
Anyone know if it's possible to be a late bloomer and also have a normal bone age?

Yes. It’s possible because that bone age X-ray that you got is just a snapshot at a given moment in time. We get one every 6 months. My child with a growth disorder is younger than your son and 3 inches taller. I would consider getting a work up with an endocrinologist because if you need growth hormone therapy, you don’t have a lot of time left. And if he is just short, then you’ll know there isn’t anything else to be concerned about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, but DS is 4'5", 12 y/o
Had scan of wrist done, showed normal bone age which surprised me. He's always late to lose teeth, looks way younger than his friends.
Anyone know if it's possible to be a late bloomer and also have a normal bone age?

Yes. It’s possible because that bone age X-ray that you got is just a snapshot at a given moment in time. We get one every 6 months. My child with a growth disorder is younger than your son and 3 inches taller. I would consider getting a work up with an endocrinologist because if you need growth hormone therapy, you don’t have a lot of time left. And if he is just short, then you’ll know there isn’t anything else to be concerned about.

Your child seems to be normal height then..what made you think they had a growth disorder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, but DS is 4'5", 12 y/o
Had scan of wrist done, showed normal bone age which surprised me. He's always late to lose teeth, looks way younger than his friends.
Anyone know if it's possible to be a late bloomer and also have a normal bone age?

Yes. It’s possible because that bone age X-ray that you got is just a snapshot at a given moment in time. We get one every 6 months. My child with a growth disorder is younger than your son and 3 inches taller. I would consider getting a work up with an endocrinologist because if you need growth hormone therapy, you don’t have a lot of time left. And if he is just short, then you’ll know there isn’t anything else to be concerned about.

Your child seems to be normal height then..what made you think they had a growth disorder?

My child was in the 1st-2nd percentile for height and barely grew at all for well over a year. That red flag led to many doctor visits and finally a diagnosis of a significant condition that affects a lot more than growth, but growth is one piece of it. Now with 4 years of daily injections we have managed to get up to around 35th percentile, for the moment, which we are immensely thankful for! Predicted adult height is around 5’ if the therapy continues to work and we can squeak out 4 more inches before growth plates fuse, fingers crossed (sometimes therapy can stop working). There will be no pubertal growth spurt with our specific diagnosis so we are hoping for slow but steady growth in the time we have left. Without growth hormone therapy, endocrinologist said we would be looking at a height of around 4’7”. So yes, my kid is a normal height right now but we have fought for those extra inches!
I sincerely hope PP’s child is just a late bloomer but I’d be concerned if my 12 year old was 4’5”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If his voice hasn’t changed, then I am guessing his growth spurt is still ahead but I think your plan is good.

The voice change comes before the growth spurt? My 13 1/2 year old still has a high voice, no armpit hair, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 8th grade daughter (at her full adult height of 5’1”) says that there are a surprising number of boys in her grade who are her height or shorter.

How do you know she is at her full height? Not that it is all that astonishing,
I’m pretty sure I was my same adult size when I was 12/13, but I know many girls who continued to grow. I was the biggest kid in school (5’5”) so at least a couple yrs!

PP here. You’re right- she could continue to grow (and she’s hoping to), but the odds aren’t in her favor given the very short heights of her parents and the fact that she’s had her period for a few years already. Pretty sure she’s grown only 1/2” in the last year, if that.