If you had a small 9-year-old boy, what is their adult height?

[Heightyheight]

My DS (age 9) is the one of the smallest boys in his class - there’s maybe one boy smaller than him.

He’s always been small - he was a small baby. It’s never especially bothered him, but he’s started saying things like “I’m going to be tall when I’m older though”. I think it’s because his dad is tall 6’2. I am smallish (5’3.5 - the 0.5 is important!)

He’s convinced he’s going to be tall like his dad someday, but I am not so sure! I keep saying “Who knows what your height will be! Some people are small, some people are tall and we all grow at different rates.”

So, just wondering… if you had a small DS at 9, did he stay small?

My brother was small age 10/11 but got to 6foot which was an inch or so bigger than my dad. I also know lots of people who were tall in primary school but were just early developers so never got much bigger.

Ds3 was quite a lot shorter than his twin and every other boy in his year. So much so that he had growth injections, he is 5 10 at 33.(brothers are all 6 ft). Sil was apparently prem and tiny, similarly had injections, he’s 5 7 now, but his parents aren’t very tall.

My oldest dc was always by far the smallest. He’d wear two sizes smaller than his age. He was on 9th centile as a baby.
Puberty hit at 12 and he grew a foot in two months. He was all of a sudden same size as most of his peers.
He’s nearly 17 now and growth has slowed, he’s 5ft 8 so not tall but not tiny either.

DH and I are similar heights at 5'7 and 5'4 (me)... I think DH is a tiny bit worried about DS because DH has always been a bit self-conscious about his height.

I feel reasonably confident though as although DS is only 7 now, he's currently between the 50 and 75th centiles for height (and nearer the 75th) and seems to take after me more in build (slim and average height).

It's interesting that your DS is 5'10 - on both his current centile and the parents' heights adult predictor, DS is coming out at around 5'9-10. So feel that on average he should be around that.

Though most of the people in both of our families are short - my parents were both around 5'4... My sister is 5'2... DH's mum is 5'1, his dad 5'5... One of his brothers is also 5'7, but the other is nearly 6 ft, so I guess we have some hope 😂

Boys are unpredictable with height. Girls tend to grow earier as they mostly stop growing around a year or 2 after periods start, but boys will often have a sudden growth spurt of huge amounts when they hit puberty, so there's really no way to tell yet.

Our youngest was a real titch until he was 18. He’s now 22, 6’2 and still growing. He just had a wrist x-Ray on Dec 21st which confirmed his bone plates are still open.

Not ds, but my brother at 9 was TINY. I'm 2.5 years younger and at this age I was the same height as him and I'm not tall by any means. He is now about 5'6 I think. Our mum is 5'1 and dad 5'9 approx so your son has taller genes!

Shortest boy until year 11 ish when growth spurt started. Now 6’2 and a half! -25yrs

Our boy was premmie. My DH and I are both just under 5ft 10" - so he smaller end of average, me tall for a woman born 1960s.

Both families have tall men in the mix - my Dad, DHs bro, and short ones, my maternal grandfather and DHs Dad. DC was a 3lb baby, a tiny toddler and age 2 clothes at 5. Musical, he struggled with tiny hands to play piano. In Yr 8 Medical Mavericks visited his secondary school. Some kind of measurement to indicate how much growing that was still to come was done. Girl in front of DC was told she had nearly finished growing. DC was super excited to be told he had a lot of growing to do. We had to wait until mid year 10 and now he's a flipping giant. We are Lego and he is Playmobile. Our ye olde house has doors he ducks to get through.

All this said, height isn't everything and my late FIL was larger than life at 5ft 6" on a good day and my older sibling bro delighted in describing me as "My not so little, little sister"

My two older boys are both 5ft 11ish now. As children my oldest was always the tallest in his class and on the 91st centile. The younger was one of the shortest and on the 9th centile - I find it quite funny they ended up the same height!

Plenty of protein and milk (milk has an insulin-like growth factor that adds a couple of inches). Genetics matter a lot - with a tall dad he is reasonably likely to be tall and if you have tall siblings/parents/grandparents he is very likely to be tall.

6' even (age 25). 85 kg. Still has small feet though, barely size 9.

DS (now 72") was only supposed to be 66" by that formula

We looked at that half your adult height at 2.5 thing when DS2 was about 2. Worked out he'd be 5ft 3.

Apparently it's true in most cases.

My son was premature and was always on the 9th centipe. He's 5ft 8.

Mine was one of the smallest at primary and secondary.
Then at aged 17 grew vast amounts in a couple of months and is now just over 5ft10.

His father and I were also late 'developers'

My DS was probably in the smallest 5 in his class when he was 9. At 20 he is now 5'11 and a bit! His dad is about the same height, I'm 5'2.

He was also one of the smallest when he went to high school, didn't really start growing until yr 10.

He is 5ft 11. He had a huge growth spurt at 15

We're 5ft and 6ft. DS1 was always shorter than virtually everyone. At primary school there was one girl shorter, everyone else taller! 5th centile or below in red book. He's 20 now and about 5ft 7. Short, but not massively noticeably so. Younger brothers are taller, no one taller than 6ft Dad though yet.

Ds was small for his age and I remember when he went to secondary school having to order an age 9- 10 sweatshirt that still looked big. He's 20 now and 6ft 1

My teeny tiny 9 year old son is n9w 6ft.
Was a late developer but shot up between 16&17.
Was always the smallest in his class -- even in year 9 and 10

My DS was the sallowest in his class till he was about 12.

hes now 16 and is currently 5 ft 9 and still growing.

dH is 5 ft 10

My 16 year old was born 9lb 8oz but long and skinny. He remained skinny but quickly lost the “long” bit and all through primary school
he was tiny. Halfway through secondary school he literally shot up, he went from the shortest in the year to almost the tallest. He’s now about 5’11” and still growing. He’s still
skinny tho.

My son was between 2nd and 9th centile until he was about 15. He's now above 5 11. His dad is short at 5 6 . I'm 5 11 and he's a fraction taller than me now he's 19.

DS was a long, lean baby at birth and went straight into 0-3 clothes. He then fell behind as a baby/ toddler as he had CMPA and other allergies that restricted his diet.

At 13, he's grown a good 6" in the past year and is now about 5'5" and enjoying looking down at me. He by-passed 13-14 uniform this autumn and went straight from 11-12 into 14-15. It looked rather sack-like in September but is comfortably big now.
DH is 6' so there is potential for tall genes, and DH wasn't held back by his short mother.
There's a lot of growth potential window ahead.

DS2 has always been about a size older for his age compared to DS1 and tends to have friends of similar height. Always has bigger hands/ feet too so my money's on him being the taller sibling long term... puberty has not kicked in yet...