Does anyone know anything about Growth?

[KatyMac]

When DD was a baby - she grew very fast

She was always much bigger than her contempories

The HV & GP discussed whether she needed to be referred to check that she wouldn't be vastly tall & decided that she wouldn't estimating 5 ft 11.5 inches as her predicted height

All through junior school she has been taller than her friends but I always felt that this was because she grew at a different point/age to the other girls.....possibly because she is mixed race (this was suggested by GP)

But at 11 she is quite small in her year - not the smallest but not 'average' iyswim

I am not worried as I am 5ft 5, DH is 6ft 1 (my mum & DH's mum are both about 5 10, my baby bro is 6 4) as I feel very confident that she will be at least my height

But how does it all work - do they have predicted growth spurts, is it predictable? do the health professional know what they are talking about?

[Sidge]

A child's potential adult height can be roughly predicted based on their parental heights. In the child health record (red/green/blue book) there is a formula for calculating predicted height (I think it's on the page for growth age 5-18).

It gives a range, so a child can be monitored based on the expected range eg you can expect a child to be between the 50th and 75th centiles for example, and if they are significantly shorter or taller than predicted they can be referred on for investigation.

[kif]

This happened to my friend.

She was always the tallest. Then she stopped growing just when all the rest of us started growing. She;s now my shortest friend. Not in a bad way. Just in a petite way.

[mum2RandR]

Im not sure how they work, I think its just a estimation based on there current height and how much they predict they will grow every year.
I will be watching this thread with interest as my 19 month old DD is very tall for her age, she looks at least a year older then she is. Am worried shes going to be too tall when shes older.

[kif]

My Dd is very tall now (aged 5). She;s always been on 95th centile. Health professionals never commented. I;m feeling a little paranoid at the moment, though. We went bike shopping, and the assistants made a big play of how tall she was. ( Mon Dieu, I thought she was 8 etc etc). She was a little sad to end up with a generic bike for 7-9 year olds, rather than the little 'Princess' bike she coveted.

[KatyMac]

Her predicted height is 5ft 11.5 at 11 she is 4ft 10

I can't see her growing that much now, but maybe she can

[smudgethepuppydog]

DD was predicted to be my kind of height at 2.5 but stopped growing at 4 for over 12 months (due to intervention for her asthma). She was always the smallest in her Primary year groups.

She was bone aged at 7 and again at 11 where it was predicted that her bone age was 2 years behind her chronological age so therefore she would catch up in her teens.

A hip injury at the age of 14 lead to an x-ray which showed her growth plate has already fused so she would most likely grow no more.

So, instead of the prediction of 5ft 6 to 5ft 9 she stopped at 5ft 1.

She started senior school tiny, she needed 8-9 year old clothing but she did have a spell of rapid growth as puberty hit and needed 12-13 by the time she hit Year 10. If your DD hasn't yet started puberty she may well have another growth spurt.