DS, short height

[youvegottobekidding]

He wasn’t born early, he was on time. It wasn’t until he started school that we kind of noticed he was the smallest and has remained the smallest in his year. Some of his friends have younger siblings who are in years 2&3 & they’re all either the same height as ds or taller.

We don’t make an issue of it in front of him as he is sensitive about his height, he has been ‘picked’ on for it by his peers and it’s been dealt with, but it doesn’t stop them, someone will still have a dig at ds about his height. He’ll sometimes ask me when he’ll have a growth spurt so he can be as tall as his friends :(.

I have taken him to the drs twice in the past 12-18 months I think. think last time was about a year ago or just over. They measured him & looked at his red book. They said nothing to be too concerned about & that’s it. Ds is in the 25th centile.
His shoe size is a 1, his feet also seem to take a long time to grow in size too. His height measures around 128. So that’s 2cm more than when I first took him to the drs around 18mths ago. So he is growing as he outgrows his clothes, just at a really slow rate.

We love him just the way he is, if course we do, he’s very handsome, funny & smart, but I just can’t help thinking if there could be an underlying health problem, I’m scared if it gets missed & now him being 10, it would be too late to do anything. I get that he’s not going to be be 6ft tall as his dad isn’t very tall & i’m around 5’6. His sister seems to be average height, she was about the same as her friends growing up, she’s the same height as me now at 15.

Would I be unreasonable to take him back to the drs & ask for them to test for ghd (growth hormone deficiency) ?

[ScarlettDarling]

I would imagine that if he's on the 25th centipede then he's well within 'normal' range so he's unlikely to have growth hormone deficiency.

If his dad is short then your son is probably just going to be like him. He will shoot up when he hits puberty though. Having watched my son and his friends seem to grow visibly overnight once they hit 13/14, I think he's only got a few years to wait.

Of course though, if you're worried, speak to the gp again.

[NoSquirrels]

I think you would not be unreasonable. It bothers you, it bothers him, it's been 18 months since you were first assessed. Better to know now if there is something that needs to be done, pre-puberty.

[Bluntness100]

They can shoot up when they hit puberty. My daughter did. How tall is your husband?

[Shplot]

My ex who I went to school with was the shortest in the year, between age 16-18 he shot up to 6 foot 4!

[SarahBeeney]

Hi OP. My daughter has just finished year 6. The range of heights in her year was staggering. The majority of boys were much smaller than the girls,some of them being the same height as my 8 years old. One of the girls was my height 5ft 9!

If he is on the centiles then I imagine that he is within the normal range.

Girls tend to stop growing at 14/15 and boys much later.

[GiantKitten]

Definitely worth asking them to do whatever tests they have for restricted growth, for your peace of mind as much as anything - if he does have a growth issue treatment needs to start as early as possible.

However, if he doesn’t... fwiw DD1 was tiny & slow-growing throughout childhood, below 10th centile, & always the shortest in her class. She had the same pair of shoes for 2 years from 4-6! DD2 is 3 years younger, was 75th centile, almost the same height with much bigger feet.

I’m 6’ (DH 5’10) so it looked weird that she was so tiny, but my height comes from my mum’s side; my paternal GM was less than 5’ & so was my MIL so there were short genes on both sides.

In the end, although it took her a long time to get there, DD1 ended up at 5’7 with size 7 feet (& so did her sister )

Good luck with getting an answer.

[Pipandmum]

There were a few very short boys in my (now 16) sons class but the boys with shorter dads have stayed short, a couple with average to tall have shot up, and a couple have yet to mature. My son was always one of the tallest but to his chagrin he seems to have slowed way down at just under 6’. Hoping to make it up there! There’s a four inch difference between his two half brothers who are 28 and 30.
I suspect there’s nothing wrong with your son and may always be in the shorter side. You have to wait til puberty to find out.

[Zoflorabore]

Ds now 16 went right through primary with a boy who sounds like your ds. His parents weren't tall and there were no apparent medical reasons until around age 10 it was discovered he had coeliac and other issues which affected his growth.

We saw him last year as the boys went to different secondary schools and he's still way smaller than ds but he doesn't look tiny like he did at 11, he's similar height to some
of ds's other friends.

Has he had bloods done?

[Upordown]

25th centile sounds ok by only 2cm growth in 18 months or so should be investigated. They should grow 5 to 6 cm a year. Try talking to the Child Growth Foundation. Although growth issues are relatively unusual, many kids do need investigating and GPs often overlook it in a short appointment. I'd want a referral to a paediatrician or endocrinologist if I were you.

[CleanAndPaidFor]

My son is on the 25th centile but both me and my husband are average height. He had his bone density etc tested when he started school as the school nurse thought he was going down the centiles. They said he's fine- just short!
He's always grown slowly but now he is 15 and just shy of 5'6. He's still got 2/3 years of growing so will be fine. He's never going to be a six footer but he is gorgeous, kind and clever!

[InMySpareTime]

Your DS is taller than mine was at that age, my DS (seasoned 0.4th Centile-dweller) wasn't a size 1 shoe until Y8! He started Secondary school in size C12 shoes and was swamped by age 8-9 uniform.
If your DS is sticking on the 25th centile there's no problem, only if he drops down through centiles.

[LatinforTelly]

128 cm for a 10 year old is between the 2nd and 9th centile in my red book, nearer the 2nd.

I agree with a previous poster that 1-2 cm growth a year warrants investigation. Doctors seem to be unwilling to take poor growth seriously on occasion - telling mothers of kids under the chart that the kids are 'following their own centile'.

The Child Growth Foundation are helpful - give them a call. And I would ask for a referral to a paediatrician at least but preferably a growth clinic/paediatric endocrinologist. He wasn't by any chance low birth weight when he was born, was he OP?

[youvegottobekidding]

Thank you everyone for your replies, they are encouraging to read & i’m going to check in ds’ red book as I think you’re right Latinfortelly he could be on the 9th whichever, I know he was on the 25th at some point so he may of dropped. He wasn’t a low birth weight, he was bigger than his sister when he was born!

His dad is the same height as me so yeah, like I said, I’m not expecting ds to be 6ft or anywhere near, just have that niggling doubt, I just want peace of mind that all is well, I don’t really care if he’s just short, like his dad, he’s absolutely gorgeous and my my best bud! I just think i’d not forgive myself if there was something wrong & I didn’t do enough or anything about it. He may well shoot up when he hits puberty, we never know.

I don’t know if it’s related or not or I just could be overthinking this but on his last trip to the dentist, I was surprised when she said he still had 12 of his baby teeth left! I knew he hadn’t lost any for quite a while, but still got 12! I’m sure his sister had probably lost all her baby teeth by year 6, I could be wrong & I don’t mean to compare him to his sister but growth wise & these things you sometimes do don’t you when you have two or more.

Once again, thank you for your replies, very much appreciated.

[Bluntness100]

If his dad is only five six I think that's probably part if not all of it. He likely takes after his father.

[alliejay81]

I don't think you need to worry. I have a DS who is 10 and a half. He's 127cm. They only start to worry if children are below the 0.4th centile. Loads of kids (9% in fact ) are on the 9th centile or below!!

[RainOrSun]

DH and I are both 5'7.
DS is 10y (and 3 months, if its important).
He is slight, but not particularly short at 141cm (50th height centile, 25th weight, iirc) However he is probably one of the shorter ones in his year. People who see him away from his friends comment on how tall he is - possibly because he is all limbs and bones? Many of his mates are literally a head taller than him.
We've just counted 10 lost teeth, and a wobbly one. So he hasn't lost many more than your son.

I'm not actually sure how that info will help you, but thought a comparison might be interesting, if not helpful......

[SarahBeeney]

@youvegottobekidding If you look in the 'sponsored q&a' section on here there is a web chat with Dr Hilary Jones about children's growth. I'm not sure when it is but might be worth reading through and posting a question.

[GaraMedouar]

My DS was always 25th percentile and one of the smaller ones. He kept saying he would never grow. At around age 14/15 he shot up, 18 now and he is 5ft 11. Same as his dad. I would reckon your son will probably end up around his dad's height, maybe slightly taller.

[Teddybear45]

My brother was 5 ft 3 at 13/14. By 15/16 he was 6ft 2. He still has the horrific stretch marks from that growth spurt. This type of huge spurt is fairly usual amongst Indian boys who don’t weigh much as puberty tends to be a bit delayed - his voice only cracked when he was 15 etc.

[Teddybear45]

My dad was only 5 ft 8.

[treesandgarden]

One of my children is small. She was quite big at birth. She has been reviewed by two paediatricians and at the minute is being weighed and measured regularly by the GP.

[ErrolTheDragon]

His dad is the same height as me so yeah, like I said, I’m not expecting ds to be 6ft or anywhere near, just have that niggling doubt, I just want peace of mind that all is well, I don’t really care if he’s just short, like his dad, he’s absolutely gorgeous and my my best bud! I just think i’d not forgive myself if there was something wrong & I didn’t do enough or anything about it. He may well shoot up when he hits puberty, we never know.

We had a similar thing with DD. I'm short, DH is I suppose average (certainly not tall) so I wasn't surprised she was small. DH however worried because his family has a history of thyroid issues. So, we had that checked - all well, and she's a bit taller than me now.

As with us, your DS is probably fine, just taking after the shorter parent, but because there's a small chance that there could be some underlying issue and there's a window in which it may be possible to do something while they're still developing, it's sensible to get the tests done.

The main difficulty imo is doing so without upsetting the kid. Fortunately for us, DD was on the page of being fine with ending up my height and we were humouring dad, but it sounds like your DS may be more sensitive. I would see if it was possible to have an initial discussion with your doctor without him present.

[youvegottobekidding]

Errol - yes, you’re absolutely right, trying to do this without him thinking what am I thinking, without upsetting him, is difficult. I tried to make a drs appt yesterday as I was at the drs myself just for a blood test & had to take ds with me & when he came out he asked why he needed an appt & I told him it was for a check up & he said ‘yeah I bet’. So I think he knows what it’s for so part of me thinks should I just be honest but not tell him that I’m concerned, just that we want to make sure everything is okay & that there maybe tests the dr can do. But trying to get an appt at the moment is ridiculous!

[Twixes]

My DS is in the 25th percentile, that equates to 5'7 in adult height assuming he continues to follow his curve.

I really wouldn't worry if I were you, someone has to be in the lower half of the centiles, indeed 50% of the population are! Your DH is short and he's just taking after him.

[sparkla]

I'm on the flip side op - my daughter is 9y3m and 145cm. We're under paediatric endocrinology who have done a bone age X-ray, ultrasound and bloods.