Worried about my very small 4.5 yr old son

[citymummy13]

my ds has just started primary school and it is glaringly obvious how small he is compared with his peers. As I am only 5 ft and my partner is only 5ft 6 I do not expect him to be a giant however he is now 4 yrs and 5 months and is just 94 cm and weighs 2 stone 3.5 lbs. He was born at 35.5 weeks weighing just short of 4lb. He is a very bright boy and very active. Up till now the doctors have not been concerned. However we have decided to take him back to the doctors for a second opinion. I am terrified they will suggest growth hormone injections but obviously want him to achieve an 'acceptable' height. Has anyone had similar situation and what was recommended. I am
So worried.

[MmeLindor.]

We had DD assessed recently as she has always been small for her age.

The doc took blood, stool sample and sent DD to have her hand xrayed.

The results came back that DD was likely to be a small adult, but there was no reason to suggest that treatment is necessary.

She is 9yo. Just checked her records, and she was just under 100cm at 4.5y

My DH and I are similar height to you and your DH.

[MMQC]

My daughter is now five and has always been tiny. Although in Yr1 she is still the smallest in the school by some way!

I had a call from the school nurse last term to point out that she's on the 0.02nd centile and did I have any concerns. I told her how tall I was (5'0) and asked her if she thought I ought to be concerned. She said not really!

She's monitoring her again this term, I think. But I think she's just going to be little. It's useful when getting her into attractions, she pretends to be 2 or 3 so we don't have to pay! ;-)

[titchy]

Probably nothing to worry about - have you looked at his likely adult height range given yours and dh's heights? The red book tells you how. If he is within this centile range nothing to worry about. If not get hm checked.

My own ds was outside his predicedt centile range, so had the hand x-ray that showed he was just growth delayed. Very common and means he will simply keep growing for a couple of years after his peers have stopped.

MMQC - I'm 5'0 as well and ds was on 0.02 centile too. This WAS still outside the expected range though so might be worth asking the nurse to refer you to a growth clinic.

[MMQC]

Thanks Titchy (hmm, wonder where the name came from!)

Honestly, I think she's fine. She's put on a bit of a spurt over the summer so some of her school dresses are borderline indecent! I'll see what the nurse says next time but I'm not expecting any issues!

[camdancer]

My DS has just started reception and is the same height and only a couple of pounds heavier. I'm 4'11" so didn't expect my DC's to be anything but short! Anyway, what he misses in height he makes up for in enthusiasm.

If you are worried get him checked out but I'm not sure what you want them to do. Ways of encouraging growth are pretty nasty. Believe me, I looked into them. I used to be extremely short for my age. Now I'm just short - I had a good growth spurt!

[citymummy13]

Thank you for your kind words. To be fair it reay is dh who is pushing for further investigations. He said it's worse for men to be very short and I guess we vertically challenged ladies can at least put on a pair of heels! I would love ds to be a more average height but apart from 'not wanting to be the smallest in the class' he is a confident, popular happy little boy. Just hoping the doctors say just wait and monitor the situation.

[MmeLindor.]

My DH said that if it were DS who was borderline needing hormone therapy then he would have pushed for it.

He suffered at school from always being the short one, and I think that it is easier for women to be short than men.

Saying that, a lot of boys do have growth spurts at 5 or 6yo.

My DS is 7yo and has shot up again in the past couple of months.

[gigglepin]

Hmm sound like us, im 5, 1, DH is 5,7 and my boy who is 8 now weighs 3 stone 5lbs and is the smallest in his class, he is even smaller than kids younger than him. His pals little brother who is 5 is as tall as my ds.

He was 5lbs at birth and has always been dainty.

Im not worried, he eats, he has tons of evergy he is bright and isnt bothered by it all all.
NO WAY would i agree to any kind of hormone treatment for cosmetic reasons.
The only way that i can see that he has grown is when his school trousers are up his ankles, so i know that he is growing normally.

I too was always the smallest so i can sympathise with my son, but really, im not worried, its just the way he is.
hth

[PrideOfChanur]

DD was and is small (followed a growth line but was actually off the bottom of the centile charts).She was at the bottom of the expected range - I'm 5'2",DH is 5'8" and we have some very small relations, male and female, on both sides,to add to that!
We saw a paediatrician from when she was about 2,she had various blood tests(I think for diabetes,coeliac disease,maybe thyroid function,and to rule out any chromosomal abnormalities - though the doc said that was v.unlikely as he'd have expected other signs besides the size issue)
She had growth hormone tests later on and was found to be producing normal amounts of growth hormone,so no treatment needed for that,and a bone age scan,which suggested she was growth delayed.
She is 17 now,and it hasn't been easy for her always being the smallest in her year - she now gets Yr7's and 8's refusing to believe she in in the 6th form...
She's doing well though - and it does mean people notice her and know who she is!
She was at the bottom of the expected range - I'm 5'2",DH is 5'8" and we have some very small relations, male and female, on both sides,to add to that!

[KatharineClifton]

My tiny prem babies started school as the smallest in the class. A few years on they are the tallest. I think I read that it takes until about age 6 to catch up on the effects of prematurity.

[DoubleMum]

I wonder what your DH's pattern of growth was? Our DS is small, consistently the 2nd smallest in his class. DH was the same until he was 13 or so, when he shot up and is now 6 ft. We're hoping DS will follow the same pattern, since as you say is is less socially acceptable for boys to be short. He certainly eats enough to be growing like a beanstalk but at 9 seems to be getting broader rather than taller.

[MitrochondrialEve]

I have a male friend who had the growth hormone treatment, and has reached the height of 5ft1in - he is very glad that he had it done. His Dad is about 5ft8in and his Mum about 5ft2in, so even after treatment he is smaller than would have been expected.

Get your DS assessed - that way you'll know whether it would help - and if it would be helpful you can then make a decision about whether you want to go ahead. They would ask about heights and growth patterns in the family and take that information into account. What you don't want is to discover in a few years that you have lost valuable time in getting treatment if it is needed.

[nutterbutsquash]

I can really sympathise with you OP as I too have a tiny DS. He's also an august birthday so when he started pre-school this term I had a few comments that he's in the wrong place! He's on the 0.04 centile just but has been on a steady decline since just after he was born when he was just below 50th so who knows what he'll be on when he starts school. He comes from small stock too but I worry alot about him starting school.