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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is OP. A couple of PPs requested I come back to the thread after seeing his doctor, so this is what transpired: she said he's just very short. His growth spurt hasn't happened yet but even when it does he'll probably be small.

I'm sad for him. I don't think anything is wrong with being short, but he does. He's already very shy and prone to depression, and I worry that always being smaller than everyone else will just make him feel worse.[/quote]
OP, I posted on here before...

My DS at 14 was 61.25 in.  He grew during the pandemic, and slimmed out -- he was chunky.  He is 16.5 now, and about 5'8" or so.  He grew 2" in six months in the past seven months.  Between his 14 and 16 yr appointment, he grew about 4.25".

I'm super short, but DH is tall.  All of us hit puberty late.  DH said he grew in college, until about 20 or 21, though between 16 and 20, he didn't grow that much.

I think DS will end at  about 5'9 to 5'10".  So not tall, but not small, either.

Did they check his growth plates and determine what his bone age is?  I had to get a scan on DS' foot, and doctor said he was about 1 to 1.5 years behind in growth at the time (preteen).[/quote]

No, they didn’t do anything except say he’s on his growth curve. Which I don’t understand; he’s dramatically shorter than all his friends and his parents are tall. [/quote]

I don't quite understand this either.  Did they show you his growth curve and what percentile he's in?  Is it the same (or close) to what he's always been?  Where he is on the Tanner scale?

And he's 5'3" now, but hasn't started his growth spurt yet.  Boys, on average, grow 11-12" in puberty.  Now that's generally not all in one spurt, and of course it's an average.  But I'm not sure if I'd be entirely satisfied with what the doctor said.  It could very well be the case that he's on his growth curve and he'll be shorter than average.  But you may want to consider asking for his growth chart and visiting an endocrinologist.

Other parents' anecdotes about their sons, husbands, brothers, etc. growing in college and ending up 6' tall are all well and good but not applicable to [i]your[/i] son.  If you feel something is off, I'd ask for a copy of your son's growth chart and see an endocrinologist.  He/she will do the wrist/hand x-ray and can better determine where things stand.[/quote]

I agree, wtf???  If he hasn't started his growth spurt, how can she say it won't be a big one??

My family has a bunch of late growers.  My oldest was about 5'1"-5'2" in middle school and went from one of the taller kids in elementary school to one of the average-small kids in MS.   He hit a crazy growth spurt from 14.5-15.5, about 8.5-9 inches.  He's 16 and 5'11
 now and not done growing.  They predict him about 6'2" which tracks with my brother, dad and uncles.  My husband is 5'11" and I'm 5'5" so I knew he would be at least 5'9-5'10". He has a size 13 shoe and not full facial hair, and his legs are long compared to body.

His younger brother (14) in two months is tracking slightly smaller than older brother and is also very, very skinny.  Older one was never that skinny, more stocky.  But, at orthopedist appointment for a sports injury, the orthopedist noted it was growth-related and he has a lot of growing to do, about 2 years behind in growth.  This kid still has baby teeth so couldn't start Invisalign and he still has a little kid voice.  He was 5'1" at the start of 8th grade this year and probably around 5'3" now.  His feet are just starting to grow.  With my older one his feet grew 3-4 sizes in as many months before he started growing vertically.  This kid has really long arms :) and hasn't grown into them.

It is so hard to be patient with late-growing boys because they are at such a disadvantage in the crazy travel sports world.  A lot of sports, particularly soccer, it ends up being an advantage because they couldn't rely on their physicality and had to be quicker, more skilled and think faster to make up for the lack of stature/weight.  Then when they grow into it, they are that much better than kids that relied and were rewarded by size.  We see that this year with my older son.  [/quote]

I'm sorry, I wasn't very clear. He's on his growth curve from the past several years, which seems to be around 20 or 30 percent. Earlier in life (like when he was a toddler) it was 40 percent. Yet she didn't think a referral to an endocrinologist was in order. What confuses me is that he was always average height in comparison to all the kids we knew. Now he's suddenly quite a bit shorter, and I am too dumb to understand how that squares with being on his growth curve.[/quote]

If he is in the 20-30th percentile and has been since he was a toddler, I agree with your dr that this doesn’t need an endocrinologist.  There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong.  He is growing and following his curve.  He seems shorter than his friends because he is.  But he is still well within a normal height range for his age.  Once he hits growth spurt, he will likely jump to around 50th percentile.  [/quote]

I agree... 20-30th percentile is normal even if it is not what he wants ( i am not minimizing his feelings at all, no fun being suddenly the shorteest). If he is slightly behind on puberty too he can easily catch up next year though. I actually recall the 2-3 guys who grew to be the tallest at 12 / 13 although some of their parents were noticably short; and how surpised i was in comparison with another guy who became shorter than them even though everyone in his family where very tall. Fast forward to 17 yo: the one who had his growth spurt latest was the tallest and matched his family. The tallest 12yo was the shortest and matched his family. [b]

It is a mixed bag... but i came out of it thinking late bloomers grow taller. And that overall, most of us will indeed be the average of our parents. [/quote]

We are seeing this with my 16-year old son.  He was tall until about 4th grade and then became average to the shorter side by 8th grade.  He hit his growth spurt at 15 so much later than most of his classmates/friends.  He is 6 feet now and still growing, very little facial hair.  Our neighbor the same age was 5'8" in 6th grade and is 5'8" as a Senior.  His other tall friend was the same and is not about 5'9" a year older.

We see such a change on the sports field this Spring.  He is now faster and stronger and dominant.

OP--my 14-year old is shorter than me and so, so, so skinny.  I'm barely 5'5". He just lost a baby tooth last week, his voice hasn't changed and he has a baby face.  In other words, hasn't gone through puberty or had a growth spurt.  This is trending later than his older brother.  The thing is his hands are very big and his arms long-large wing span.  I assume he's going to grow into that.[/quote]

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