Anonymous wrote:If you have/had a big toddler (head and shoulders taller than peers) did they end up a big adult or did they follow genetics of their parents?

We have one outlier kid - DH is 5’10” and I am 5’8”. We have a 5 year old who is 52 pounds and 51” tall. Has always been 99th percentile since he was born. Wondering if he will stay like this or go back down to the norm given that DH and I are pretty average sized.

Your husband is on the short side but you are definitely above average height for a woman. Anecdotally i feel like a tall father has the biggest impact on having tall kids.

We have two kids and somewhere in the infant/toddler phase we decided that each was similar to one of their uncles. One was tall, lanky and in constant motion - just like uncle W. The other was thicker with a long torso just like uncle T.

20 years later, their body types/height pretty much mirror their uncles at the same age.

Anonymous wrote:I had a huge toddler. 99th percentile for everything. He is now 15 (almost 16) and is not big or tall. He is 5.8 and he might grow another inch if I have my guess. I'm 5.0 and his dad is 5.10.

How long was he in the 99th percentile?

My nephews were normal height as small children, and they're all over 6' in height as young adults. The men in my family are usually quite tall.

I had a huge toddler. 99th percentile for everything. He is now 15 (almost 16) and is not big or tall. He is 5.8 and he might grow another inch if I have my guess. I'm 5.0 and his dad is 5.10.

OP - when I mean DS is head and shoulders above his peers I mean it. He looks like Jolly the big green giant in his class pictures. I hope he is tall but not abnormally tall! I have a 6'2" brother and DH has a 6'5" uncle. So there are tall genes in our family.

My DH was always tall for his age, but not 99th percentile. Maybe more like 90th, according to his mom. Anyway, he is 6’0”. His parents were 5’10’ and 5’2”, so he ended up taller than expected, but not huge. He also finished growing earlier than a lot of boys- about 9th grade.

I have teens so starting to see how things “end up” with the kids we know.

IME most of the big kids (the ones who are big BEFORE the puberty years or puberty timing is involved ) are indeed ending up big. Most of their parents are also tall (or at least one parent is) so no big surprise.

Then again, I know a few kids who were always big but then just stopped growing by age 11-12 and ended up average to short. But their parents are also short.

You are tall and your DH is average so I’d think that would strongly point toward your big child ending up tall, yes. But no guarantees.

I had two big toddlers. DS's growth slowed and he ended up at 50%ile by 4 years old and tracked that way up until late high school when he had a huge growth spurt and now at 21 he's 6'2". No idea where the height came from since he's taller than all the men in our extended family. DH is 5'10".

DD remained tall through childhood (95%ile) but stopped growing at 11 at 5'6" (same height as me). So, a little above average but not what her growth chart would have predicted.

Anonymous wrote:Kid was always 99%, always taller than peers. Currently in college and is 6' even. Dad is 6'3, I am 5'2" - the measurements they did at some point (2-3 years old?) suggested this child would be 5'10"

6 feet is not 99% so at some point he dropped down.

Anonymous wrote:If you have/had a big toddler (head and shoulders taller than peers) did they end up a big adult or did they follow genetics of their parents?

We have one outlier kid - DH is 5’10” and I am 5’8”. We have a 5 year old who is 52 pounds and 51” tall. Has always been 99th percentile since he was born. Wondering if he will stay like this or go back down to the norm given that DH and I are pretty average sized.

lol. You are not “a pretty average sized” at 5’8.

I know two families where the kids were head and shoulders taller than their peers as toddlers. Both sets of parents were races/ethnicities that historically have been short.

1. 5'11" mom and 6'2" dad- son is 6'6" and daughter is 5'11".

2. 5'11" mom and 6'2" dad as well- son is 6'3" and daughter is 5'11".

My own son was never 99th percentile but has always been in the 90th and above, though never head and shoulders taller than his peers. He's currently 6' at 14.5 and still growing. We're 5'3" and 6'1".

Anonymous wrote:If you have/had a big toddler (head and shoulders taller than peers) did they end up a big adult or did they follow genetics of their parents?

We have one outlier kid - DH is 5’10” and I am 5’8”. We have a 5 year old who is 52 pounds and 51” tall. Has always been 99th percentile since he was born. Wondering if he will stay like this or go back down to the norm given that DH and I are pretty average sized.

Yes. My 6’2” son and my 6’3” nephew were big toddlers. My son’s parents : 5’7” and 5’11” and my nephew’s parents 5’6” and 5’9”. A shared great uncle was over 6’. Other than that, no one else over 6’.

My nephew turned out to be quite the athlete. In middle school, the basketball coaches were visibly disappointed when they met my sister and BIL for the first time. 😁 They were hoping for tall genes. At 6’3”, despite being very good - he was not recruited for basketball for college - also partly because covid interrupted his junior season. He ended up playing football in college. Luckily, he never made it off the practice team.

Kid was always 99%, always taller than peers. Currently in college and is 6' even. Dad is 6'3, I am 5'2" - the measurements they did at some point (2-3 years old?) suggested this child would be 5'10"

If you have/had a big toddler (head and shoulders taller than peers) did they end up a big adult or did they follow genetics of their parents?

We have one outlier kid - DH is 5’10” and I am 5’8”. We have a 5 year old who is 52 pounds and 51” tall. Has always been 99th percentile since he was born. Wondering if he will stay like this or go back down to the norm given that DH and I are pretty average sized.