Instead of obsessing over your son’s size, you should reassure him that he is worthy regardless of how tall he is.

My kid looked (and sounded) 10 from age 10 to age 13. Between 13.5 (end of 8th grade) and age 14 (a month into 9th grade) he grew to about 5'5 or 5'6 and his voice changed. He ended up being between 5'9 and 5'10 at 16 which was always his expected height. (I'm 5'4 and DH is 5'8 so he seems tall)

I've seen pictures of DH as a 14 year old HS freshman and he looked like a little kid so it was not surprising that DS was on the small side in MS.

Anonymous wrote:Can you tell bone age by looking at non-wrist x-rays or is it wrist only? My son just got an X-ray of his elbow for an injury and the orthopedist said his growth plates are wide open. He’s on the taller side for just having turned 14 so wondering how much gas is left in the tank, so to speak.

Calculating bone age is a separate work up typically and usually only done if there is a growth concern. Everyone else has to wait and see.

You can probably get a vague idea of how much more he will grow based on how far he is into puberty + family history. But of course it varies….for example If he hasn’t had a voice change and doesn’t have a lot of facial hair (and has tall parents) he likely will grow more. If he has short parents a deep voice and is starting to grow a beard….obviously probably wont grow a lot more.

Anonymous wrote:I'd love an update and I'm about to take in my 13.5 year old with no voice change in for a bone age xray.

13.5 is on the early side for a voice change FWIW. My DS is 15.5 and his voice just started cracking. He was only in the very early stages of puberty at 13.5. Usually the voice change comes quite awhile after puberty begins.

Anonymous wrote:Only growing an inch in one year would make me concerned. Kids grow more than that per year pre-puberty.

This happened to my DS and I was concerned- but our ped said it is actually common. Lots of kids have a slower period of growth right before puberty. My DS was 5’0” at 12 and then only 5’1” at 13. Then started to grow. Then was 5’3” at 14, 5’7” at 15. Currently 15 1/2 and 5’9” with no signs of slowing down just yet.

But I didn’t know about this until it happened to my DS….it definitely does seem odd at the time.

Can you tell bone age by looking at non-wrist x-rays or is it wrist only? My son just got an X-ray of his elbow for an injury and the orthopedist said his growth plates are wide open. He’s on the taller side for just having turned 14 so wondering how much gas is left in the tank, so to speak.

I'd love an update and I'm about to take in my 13.5 year old with no voice change in for a bone age xray.

Just realized this thread was old.
An update would be really interesting!

Only growing an inch in one year would make me concerned. Kids grow more than that per year pre-puberty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH was super short until he was a Sophomore in HS. His nickname was shorty. He is now 6'2. He had a super late growth spurt. I think it just happens to some kids.

This is unusual. Most short kids aren’t suddenly in the 90%tile. They have late growth spurts but usually stay around their curve.

Not at all unusual.. The growth curves are dramatically skewed (to the point of being nearly worthless) during the typical puberty years. Tons of late blooming boys will fall way down the charts during the middle school years and then catch up or even end up quite tall. Quite typical.

Anonymous wrote:My DH was super short until he was a Sophomore in HS. His nickname was shorty. He is now 6'2. He had a super late growth spurt. I think it just happens to some kids.

This is unusual. Most short kids aren’t suddenly in the 90%tile. They have late growth spurts but usually stay around their curve.

Since this thread is nearly 3 years old, I'd be curious to hear how OP's son turned out. My kid just turned 15, and is just now starting puberty.

how tall is DS now OP? if you're still here 3 yrs later

humans are like plants !!!!! wow. feed him fertilisers then? and put him under the bulb.

Anonymous wrote:My son turned 14 in April and while he grew a lot this year (3 inches), he's still on the shorter side (5'4") with no change to his voice yet. I know he feels uncomfortable being behind his friends, but his pediatrician said that he's just at the very beginning puberty now. My husband didn't go through puberty until 15 1/2 so I think my son will just be a late bloomer. I know it's easier to worrying, but some kids just do things in their own time.

Why is that on the short side for a 14-year-old? Doesn't seem on the short side at all. My DS was way below 5' at 13, heck he was like a second grader! He is almost 6' at 22.