Teen boys growing after age 16/17

[WillMo]

My son is 16. He's of average height at about 5'9". He is fit and sporty and feeling a little bit bothered that he hasn't reached his predicted height.

He was 175cm at age 13/14, (which put him above 90th centile) and has only increased slightly since then.

His predicted height, according to his parents' height and growth charts is around 6'. His dad is over 6' tall and I am 5'4".

He is definitely towards the end of puberty.

I'm looking for stories of late growth really and whether I should gets him looked at for any deficiencies? This might be his final height, and that is fine, but it is definitely different to what was expected!

I wouldn't worry about it tbh

I wouldn't say 5ft 9 is anything to worry about tbh

On the whole, I think they grow in those big jumps til approx 18, but then a very steady small but growth til maybe 20/21.

This is based on no scientific knowledge at all btw 😁

I think some children have a growth spurt around 13/14 and others towards 18/19 so perhaps he is one of the latter types?
I'm sure they still keep growing into their early twenties as well, just at a much slower rate.
5'9 is average any way so it's not as if he is very short, I wouldn't make a fuss over it.

Dennis Rodman was famously short and had a major growth spurt that took him to 6’7.

My eldest grew until 21, my second eldest is still growing at 20. Generally girls can grow until 18, boys until 21.

Thank you. Definitely haven't mentioned it to him at all, although he has made a few comments.

Did he have any pauses in growth? Was he delayed in puberty?

My son has facial and body hair, so I'm not sure how much more growing is possible, if at all.

He might grow another 4cm
But if dad is 6' thats about 79th percentile and you are 50th.
So reaching 5'10 and 50th wouldnt be that unexpected.

My 12yo giro is my height now so 50th percentile and seems like 09th percentioe but with early puberty is unlikely to be the 5'7 her current height might suggest.

How tall was he before growth spurts was he always above 70th per centile?

My ds had a real spurt aged 13 and reached 6 foot 1 then.

now aged 24 he is 6 foot 1.5

i think those who shoot up early have pretty much shot their bolt

My son was quite small at 16 but then started growing steadily towards 6 ft. He only really started to look more masculine when he reached about 20 (and got rid of his daft hairdo 🤣)

Mine kept growing until about 21

It is common for boys to continue growing up to age 19. Girls finish growing earlier but even so I outgrew the leg length of my trousers between 16 and 18.

My son is 19 and it's slowed down, but is still growing!

Eldest ds grew a further 4 inches between age 16-18.

My sons are both about 2 years behind in their bone age and so will basically grow for 2 or more years longer than normal. It seems to me that if you can be behind bone age you can be ahead too so many your son is ahead in his bone age and grew earlier?

my sons both had testing and wrist X-rays done as the paed was concerned about their growth rate. Oldest ds is now 15 and I’d say in the early stages of puberty. Like where a typical 13 year old would be. He’s short for 15 but ok for 13.

I'm following this with interest as my DS is almost 15 and is growing reeeeeeeeeally slowly! His best friends all had spurts at 12/13 and are taller / more built / voices have fully broken. DS feels so skinny and squeaky next to them, bless him!
I've told him he may not end up particularly tall but he does have a lot of growing years left so he needs to be patient. Which of course he can't be because he's 14

Do those expected heights things actually work? I was average height until I had a huge growth spurt later on, same for DH.

My ds19 has stopped growing (at least he hasn't grown in the last two years) and is shorter than his dad, me and his younger sister! He doesn't seem bothered though and noone has ever suggested deficiencies. He is also a lot stockier and musclier than us so I'm not sure where he gets that from!

The parental height potential thing just doesn't ring true in my family. MIL was 5'2", FIL was 5'7" and Dh is just shy of 6'3" and yes definitely their child. His maternal Grandfather was considered tall for his generation.

I am 5'4" and Ds1 is about 5'10" at 21 years old and Ds2 is 5'11" at just turned 18 years old. Your son's height is normal. My friend's son is 6'5" and both his parents are 5'10" each.

Ds2 was desperate to be taller than me, we measured us back to back with a spirit level for a joke on Christmas day when he was 13 and I was still taller, a week later on New Years Eve he was a good 1cm taller than me, so he grew about 2cm in a week. They do spurts then slow growth.

My 18 year old grew 2 inches between 17 & 18!!

My son continued growing until he was 21 or so, he was average height while at school but is now 6’7” tall! My younger son is 6’4” tall yet my daughter is 5’6” which she thinks is unfair!

I was 5’8” ( until I started shrinking with old age!) and my ex husband was 5’10” - my boys get their height from their fathers side of the family as many of their cousins are very tall.

That's so interesting! Thank you!

Did you think they would be late growers or was it a surprise? Did he stay average height for a while at school before the growth?

Wow! Had he been growing steadily prior to this? Or was it a sudden growth spurt?

My son is 20, 21 in Oct and still growing! He was late with puberty tbh and still doesn’t have much facial hair etc.