Please tell me about your sons' late growth spurts!

[jingjang]

Most (but not all) of the men in our family are well over 6'. DS1 was 6' 2" by age 16, and grew another inch at 18, so is now 6' 3". But younger brother DS2 is nearly 17 and has been 5' 11" for a couple of years now - his feet are size 10.5 UK and haven't grown since he was 13. He wants to be taller, especially as he is starting to be de-selected for the sport that he loves and otherwise excels at. His friends and team mates have shot past him in the last 2 years. We of course encourage him to love the height that he is, and tell him that late growth spurts are possible, like his brother. But, just for me, please tell me about your sons' late growth spurts - how late, and by how much?

DS (23) is now 6' 5". When he left school at 18 he was measured as 6'1". His cousin, 4 months younger, was always towering over him but stopped growing at 17 and is 6'.

Love it. 😀

You know 5 11 is 2 inches above average right? And also size 9 feet?

Hardly in to small man syndrome territory..

I thought you were going to say your son was really short! He’s already above average height

my own DS was short and had a later growth spurt at 15/16 and his body has totally changed

Yes, I know that, but only in the general population, not in DS's sporting circles, and not in his circle of friends at school, and not even in his family.

My DS's are the same OP, now 18/19 and around 5ft 9/5ft 10 and yet their Dad is 6ft 2 and I'm 5ft 7 so not short (Their feet are also size 10). I think they've resigned themselves to not growing much more now and instead are working out and perfecting what they've got ha. It's all down to what genes they have at the end of the day and with shorter Grandparents/Great grandparents I'm guessing they've taken after them.

Can you remember what centile they were at birth? My eldest was 98th, but DS2 was 91st. I checked the average growth chart, and he could reasonably expect to reach 6' 1", but let's see.

5’11 is tall though.
I was all set to share a reassuring story about ds who barely grew until he was 16, but I won’t bother!

My youngest didn’t grow at all until he was about 18. He was honestly about 5’6 until then.

He’s now 6’2 at almost 21 and, according to his scans/X-rays of bone plates has about 2 more years of growth.

His brother is 6’.

Although I am not short (5’8 ish), their dad is (5’9 and a bit), so we were quite worried when the youngest was short for so long.

But he's already tall. Maybe he won't grow any more and that would be fine. He had size 10.5 feet at age 13? My DS13 has size 4 feet 😂

My son was the same height as me for years. Left high school at about 5 feet 10. At 19, is now just under 6 feet 5.

Yay, that's what I like to hear! Did he get a scan because he had an injury? My DS2 had his hand scanned at a medical careers event and was told his growth plates were still open - he came home grinning from that. 🙂

Sorry OP, in the scheme of life I can't have sympathy. So what if he won't be a professional sportsman. What percentage of the population is? 5 ft 11 is respectable and he needs to get a grip.

Don't worry, I'm not looking for sympathy, just anecdotes. 🙂

Ye Gods! My DS is 5'11" and taller than most of his friends.

Are you sure that people are telling the truth about the 6'2", 6'3" boys?

DS is, as I have said, 3-4" smaller than that but, oddly, doesn't look smaller when compared with the other boys with those alleged heights IRL.

IME a lot of Mums see their son is taller than themselves then decide therefore they must be 6'2" or 6'3".

My 17 ds is 5ft 3" so you must think my son is tiny OP

He had scans because of his delayed growth and puberty. But also because he broke various bones playing football.

As part of investigations into his delayed puberty, he also had an mri on his brain and various blood tests too.

He’s nis the heaviest (77kg), beefiest and tallest in the family.

I have a short son whose sport favours tall people. I dont know how much any of these things help but he has researched them so we do them so he feels like he is doing something if you see what I mean. His 'maximise tallness' methods are:
Swimming (this is his sport so not hard to fit in)
Hanging from a pull up bar (not doing pull ups just hanging
Eating eggs everyday
Sleeping at least 10 hours a night

Interesting. Where do you have your pull-up bar installed? We have one in a doorway, but it isn't high enough to hang from.

Ours is in the doorway but like I say my son is short so he can hang from it if he bends his knees a little. Its apparently fine to not have straight legs whilst doing it as long as the spine is straight. You can get freestanding ones for not very much though.

Dh tells me he was one of the smallest boys in his class until age 16 when he shot up. He’s 6’4.

I met my DH when we were both 22. Not long after I went with him to his graduation and he wore a nice grey suit. A year later we were going to a friends wedding and he tried on the suit in the morning and he was wearing ankle biters 😂 had to make a mad dash to Debenhams as it looked ridiculous, the jacket looked all wrong as well. He grew about 2 inches during that year. He was an incredibly “late bloomer” though, in pics of him at age 18 he honestly looks about 12 and was around 5’6 when he went off to uni. Now he’s 6’1 and looks every second of his age!

Love it. My DS2 certainly eats like a boy aiming for 6' 4"!

Also I went to school with someone who is now a professional rugby player and 6’3. At school he was a winger and the only reason they let him play was that he was so bloody fast. He was tiny, the shortest boy in the year, couldn’t have tackled a hamster. I remember in 6th form he suddenly shot up and then just kept growing and growing.

Good for him. My DS2 has had to shift his role on his team to stay in it, and has come close to being dropped, but is hanging on for now.