Can small children become tall adults?

[cornflake81]

My son is just over 10 and a half and is 133cm in height. He's always been the smallest in his year group and has not grown much in the last year hovering around 130ish cm for months and months 😞.

He is aware that he is small for his age and gets teased a bit but brushes it off which is good ;)

Just wondering if small children can ever grow into tall adults (or even average height adults).

Thanks! X

[BackforGood]

Yes.
I remember noticing, at ds's leaving assembly from Primary School (so just turned 11 (Summer born), how much shorter he was than so many of his peers - seriously, a foot shorter than some, and he was one of about 6 or 7 dc out of 90 that were his height.
He's 21 now and easily 6 foot. As tall as, or taller than all his friends.

[yulefool]

I was the tallest in my class at 11, a lot of the boys had massive growth spurts about 12-15, I remember because I used to worry nobody would ever marry me as I was a giant :)

[Flywheel]

Yes. My brother was the smallest in his class when he started secondary. He's over six foot now, so above average.

[MaisyMary77]

Yes. My daughter was the smallest in her year (and school!!) until she was 15. She’s now nearly 6 foot and towers over all the girls in her year at school.

[FitBitFanClub]

How tall are you and his dad? I've read that boys will always be taller than their mothers and I'm 5'8, but dh is shorter.
Ds was very small until he was about 15 - on the 2nd centile pretty much all the way through. Then he had a growth spurt and is now, at 21, just under 5'10.
The red book predictions were pretty spot on.

[Muddlingalongalone]

My brother was so small as a young child medical staff wanted to give him growth hormones(early 80's) He didn't have them but he did grow eventually and is around 6ft now.

[starzig]

Well I was a tall child that stopped as a small adult, so guess so.

[Balonder]

My brother was tiny till he was 18. He went from one of the smallest in his year to 6'3" ish. He always had massive feet though so I think that is a good indicator. We had a neighbour who was 7/8 years younger than my brother. He was the smallest of his large family and also of his year at school. He also had massive feet and is now 6'4" or 5". That's not scientific of course

[Butteredparsn1ps]

DH was always tiny at School according to MIL and he grew to 6"2.

[brizzledrizzle]

My older brother was shorter than me for ages but had a growth spurt and I'm now only up to his shoulder, he's over six foot.

[Rainboho]

My brother was always teeny at school. Now 6’5”!

[Roomba]

There was a lad in my class who was known as 'Little Lee' throughout primary and secondary school. When he hit 15 or so he suddenly shot up and is now at least 6 foot. He was still referred to as Little Lee for quite a while afterwards until we all got used to it!

[moreismore]

My husband was the shortest in his class until 6th form when he had a massive growth spurt and he’s now 6’2’’. Our son only on 25th centile for height so wondering if the same thing will happen

[cornflake81]

Wow thanks for all of your replies!

Both myself and hubby are 5ft 7 - my parents were both 5ft 7 too and both of my brothers are well over 6ft but I don't remember them being particularly small when we were younger. I just assumed because my brothers were tall that my son would be tallish too.

My son is also getting teased because his 8 yo sister is almost as tall as he is. The girls in his class tower over him and some of the 11 yo boys are 5ft 4 ish already!! Am hoping he'll have a little growth spurt soon. Kids can be so cruel.

When he was born he was on the lowest centile (0.4?) and he's now just on the 25th so gradually going up.

Thanks again everyone for replying - I do really appreciate it

[Butterflies27]

My ds had iugr when born and was on the lowest percentile. At 3 years he was still in 12-18 months clothes.

He was the smallest in his class through all primary and juniors school and use to cry as he hated being small and people teasing him. He was even referred to by friends/teachers and parents as ‘little name’.

By year 6 he was off the scale completely for weight and at the bottom for height. We were worried his younger brother would be giving him hand me down clothes.

He is now 13 in year 9 and has had a massive growth spurt he is now the same size as all his friends. Friends we haven’t seen in a while don’t recognise him. He is making up for all those years of not growing as his feet change size every 6 months

[cornflake81]

Thank you Butterflies. My DS was very small at birth - he had a true knot in his cord which wasn't detected during pregnancy (v stressful birth!) but they did pick up that he was small in the last few weeks of pregnancy (his thigh bone was very short) but gave no explanation. I feel so stupid now for not linking this or making the connection to his size and height now. Thanks for replying. Wishing you all the best ;)

[RefluxWrangler]

They can, OP, as this thread shows, but IUGR children can also have long term problems with weight and height. Are you sure he's on the 25th centile - as I have a 10 and a half year old (being treated for growth problems) who's over 135 cm and he's bang on the 25th? I make 133 cm to be on the 9th line - which is of course still absolutely normal!

I'd probably just keep an eye, and if his growth slows more, ask for a referral to a growth specialist (endo) explaining his diffficult start. The Child Growth Foundation are also extremely helpful and have a helpline you can phone.

Hopefully it won't come to that though and he'll continue to climb up the charts/hold his centile! Best of luck.

[cornflake81]

Hi Reflux. Thank you for replying. He's 133.5cm and almost 10 3/4 but I'll double check too - he may be on the 9th! . Thanks for the growth foundation info. I'll have a look and maybe speak to my GP. Thanks for all your help x

[goose1964]

There seems to be some correlation between nutrition in puberty and height. I have 2 boys that ate like the world was about to end and both are over 6 feet on the other hand DD who never wanted to eat ended up at 5'3". Similar things happened with friends of theirs who were roughly the same height when they left primary school

[youvegottobekidding]

I was going to start a thread regarding my ds's height - he's 8 & the shortest in his class, his peers are at least about a foot taller than him.

However, he's one of the youngest in his class and his dad is the same height as me, if not slightly shorter at about 5'5'' so I'm not expecting my ds to be 6 foot but I do worry sometimes, especially as he has experienced bullying about his height, which we have tackled, yet I can see it sometimes plays on my ds's mind, more so as he gets older.

His teenage sister appears to be of average height the same as her peers.

I work at my ds's school & can see that some of the reception children are actually the same height as him, the odd one maybe taller. I do worry sometimes but then I think perhaps he'll have some growth spurts & catch up at some point.

[contiflo]

Yes- my husband was about 4 foot something for all his high school life until he got to year ten and stretched out to 6 foot 4.. just needed puberty! His twin brother was exactly the same

[LouiseHumphreys81]

My nearly 7 year old is 2nd centile for both weight and height, both my husband and I are 5"6. He has always been little. We did take him for some blood tests last year, just because he had dropped a little bit on the centile and we didn't want to assume he was just little because of genetics. Everything came back normal, but it's reassuring to hear some boys did grow, he doesn't really mind being the smallest but he is aware of it.

[youvegottobekidding]

How do you work out where they are on the centile chart?

[brownelephant]

how tall are you and his dad? - there are calculations in the red book about predicted adult height

how tall are relatives? - if you are the tall one out of a short family, dc might either follow the tall or short relatives.

how tall was he as 2yo? - double the height at 2 yo gives an indication of predicted adult height.

[Butterflies27]

I posted earlier up but due to unfortunate events we have ended up in hospital. A consultant mentioned that a child following a height percentile steadily on any of the lines is ok, if a child drops off their percentile for a prolonged length (3 months or so) they should be referred.