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?

Not my son (yet) but my sons dad. He was tiny until he was about 15 or 16 and then just sprouted. He actually grew so fast he has stretch marks on his sides and back because of it. He's now over 6ft. My son is on the small side as well for his age so I'm thinking this could happen with him as well in time.

Good to hear. Thanks!

My DS is 181cm tall. (About 5'11 and a bit). His Dad is 190cm. He wants to be taller than his Dad!

I'm 170cm.

The stories about later growth are encouraging though I think DS' growing days are done (he's 16)

I know we are a tall family (I'm going to be the shortest in the family)

I'm very sorry for all those families with DC who are more worried about their growth but the OP made it clear in her first post the details so perhaps you could have hidden the thread rather than try to censor the OP on her own thread?

Our DS and his rugby team were the smallest in their age range for a good few years. The coach even joked about planting them all in tomato grow bags. They all seem to have evened out now.

I'm 5'4 DH5'7. DSs were fairly small until mid teens now both 6 foot at 27 and 19. The men in my family are all 6'+ though.

Hey just wanted to jump on. My son was born and on the 98th centile always. He’s now 12 and for some reason is the smallest of all of his peers!!! He has literally always been huge. Hands, feet’s, stature, height. But all of a sudden everyone is towering over him and he feels super crappy about it!! In his defence, he has not started puberty AT ALL. Where as some of his mates have tashes and deep voices. My question is, do you think there’s hope for him to have a massive growth spurt still? I mean he’s a size 8/9 shoe and is still only small. My brother randomly grew like a scene from big so maybe that’s the way things will go for my boy? Any advice or knowledge or experience greatly received x

At age 12 anything can happen. Watch and wait!

If he's sporty, be more careful of injury during major growth spurts.

I was wondering where all of these gargantuan children are IRL 😄. I suppose the thread has attracted the parents of relatively tall children.

At 16 my cousin was 5' 4" but by 21 he was 6' 4"

Both myself and female cousin grew an inch at uni

My mum grew an inch between 17 and 18

There's still plenty of time yet

A page or so back someone posted a link to a thread for posters who are worried about their kids height. You might find it more helpful than this (weird as fuck) one.

I would think chances are your son has reached his maximum height. Based as chances are he'd follow the family growth norms. Does he shave?

So instead of feeling "not worried. Just hopeful" or "Nope, not stressed, and not worried" I'd suggest you start concentrating on talking to him about accepting him small height.

Ok, so obviously I'm being sarcastic with saying small height. In all seriousness he's not small, so maybe concentrate on getting him to get a grip rather than stressing/worrying/being hopeful (delete as appropriate).

Well not small unless on MN, where the average DS is 6' 3". Though maybe next time I'm in the UK, I'll discover all teenage boys tower above me and find it's actually the national average.

(This really is a weird as fuck thread. Even for MN.)

A page or so back someone posted a link to a thread for posters who are worried about their kids height. You might find it more helpful than this (weird as fuck) one.

Agree with this. What a ridiculous thread. A poster who wants reassuring stories that their above average height son might one day be even more above average height? I certainly wasn't expecting that from the thread title.

If his sport is basketball then no it's probable that he's not tall enough. I don't understand why that's so hard to grasp.

I can tell you where my 6ft 6 16yo is rn. On a basketball tour in the US along with his team of (mostly) equally tall teenage boys. He's 5" off being the tallest.
They all definitely exist though.

Wow with all these giants around it looks like my kids will be tiny in comparison. I better start getting them used to sleep hanging from a pull up bar for ten hours while eating eggs. :-)

Yup, and basketball isn't the only sport where height is one of the fundamentals.

But actually, even amongst his school friends my 5' 11" son is one of the smallest. We live in SW London, so there are lots of tall Europeans and other nationalities here.

'If his sport is basketball then no it's probable that he's not tall enough. I don't understand why that's so hard to grasp.'

Nothing can be done about it though so they'll just have to accept it

The thread was started because I wanted to hear positive stories from people who had experienced late-teen growth spurts, from whatever starting point. I've had quite a few of those, for which I'm grateful.

The resentful height-ist comments have also been useful in their own way, for bumping the thread. 🙂

If you don’t mind me asking, but what age did he start getting a moustache and voice deepening?

The resentful height-ist comments have also been useful in their own way, for bumping the thread.

@jingjang, you have come across as spectacularly unfeeling on this thread. It's as if everyone else's experiences are just there for you to pick and choose the ones you like, and you have totally ignored the really worried and upset posters who have posted about their - actual, valid - worries about their son.

To be successful in a sport, height is not the only thing that matters. Your son could get injured tomorrow and never play again. He might just not be good enough. I don't really care.

Height is not the yardstick by which anyone's worth is measured.

Your attitude stinks.

@jingjang those posters you refer to have their own threads. They (and you) can try to derail mine if you want to, but all you're doing is bumping a very old thread back to the top of the forum. It''s no skin off my nose - I already got what I asked for from the thread, which was a clutch of anecdotes about late growth spurts.

my DB was 5ft 6 at 17. At 19, he was 6ft 1. But your DS’s height is already fine?

My son was only 5’6 at 18 and was diagnosed with a constitutional delay of puberty. He had myriad scans and tests and we were told to wait it out.

This advice was spot on. He’s now 21 and a smidge over 6’2. His bone plates are still open, so he has more growing to do but he didn’t really start growing until he was 19.

If he's 5'11, has he not already had a growth spurt? If he's that height and towered over everyone all his life and the gap just got smaller without him getting much bigger, and he started puberty late and hasn't gone through a phase where he ate his own dinner and everyone else's leftovers and then made himself a substantial snack an hour later, then it's not unreasonable to think he's still got more growing to do.

But if he's already done those things, then he might put on an inch or so slowly between now and his early twenties, but he's unlikely to have a miracle second growth spurt that takes him from tall to very tall.

Success in high level sport is partly down to skill and effort, but luck plays a huge part, and I think that it would be better for your DS to make realistic plans on the assumption that he's not going to get much taller and work on the things where he can affect change rather than stick to a path that requires an unlikely growth spurt.