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!

According to paeds consultant friend with both boys and girls it largely depends on when they go through puberty - so the earlier that is the earlier they stop growing.

Obviously there are outliers but my own observations would say it is true. Also, remember those predicted height things are estimates - I know plenty of same sex siblings with the same parents who are very different heights.

I remember a few boys, the smaller scrawny ones, groaning after we finished school. So 18. It was a shock when we caught up after a year at uni. They looked so different. If you’re worried get it checked out but probably nothing to be concerned about.

Both my boys had a bit of a spurt around 17. At 21 the oldest has definitely stopped growing but I think the 18 year old may still have another inch to go

3 boys in the wider family -one did lots of growing steadily from 13-16 but continued into early 20's. Two didn't even start to grow properly until 16 and are still going. All three had always been well above 90th percentile since birth and are all now very, very tall.

5'9" at 16 is hardly something to 'get checked out', but, as others have said, lads can continue to grow into their early 20s.

Ds1 suddenly grew an inch at 21 after being the same height for 4 years! So random!

i actually expected him to be mega tall as he was on the 98th percentile when he was born and continues that way until he was 14. At 11 he was 5 foot 6! But then he only grew 6 inches, until he was 14.

you just don’t know!

My three boys all had their main growth spurts between 13 & 14, reaching 5'10 (my height, which is why I remember) by 14. They all carried on growing after that, but more slowly. They stopped around 20 or 21, ending up as 6', 6'2 and 6'3. Their dad is 5'11.

I'm 5'3" and my ex is 6'1" tall. Our boys both ended up 5'11". I'd say the both grew the last two inches between 17 and 19. They look like giants to me but have lots of friends who are taller, they're a tall generation of kids.

DS is 6’2” at 18 and still growing, we think. Probably grew 2” 16-18.

But why is he worried about it?

Ds1 was 16 in January and is definitely still growing.

He had his main growth spurt around 14.5 where he grew about a foot in less than six months, taking him to 5' 11 ish.

He's continued to grow more slowly since then, but I measured him around his 16th birthday and he was 6' 1. Measured him last week and he's now 6' 2 so he's gained an inch in about 4 months.

Boys are so obsessed with night aren’t they 🙈 I don’t remember anything like that when I was a teenage girl but I was full size when I was 11 😂

Because girls (and women in general) can be so unnecessarily cruel about short(er) men.

My brother'n'law grew 4 inches between 19 and 21. My son is 17 is still growing - but I think you are saying your son had an earlyish puberty?
If you really want to know my son's school did some sort of science thing with scans and he was told he had lots of bone growth to go.

This has turned into a bit of a tall strapping lad competition, I’ve read some pretty derogatory things on here about men’s height, or lack of. Focus on what’s good about your son op, what he likes doing, what sort of guy he is, what’s nice about him. Teach him that if anyone cares so much about what height he is then they are not worth bothering with, just to try and enjoy life whoever he is and what ever height he reaches.

OPs son is already taller than my son’s fathers so I don’t see any issue 😁

Boys can carry on growing until they're 18 or even older. But anyway 5'9" is perfectly fine and in between you and your DH.
Both my brothers are shorter than our dad, our mum is quite petite.

They can keep growing til 21.

Their backs keep growing longer than their legs.

I carried on growing until I was 23/24, I'm 6'3 and I was 5 foot 11 when I was 16. My son also carried on growing in his 20s.

In fact I'm still growing slightly, just not upwards.

My eldest 21years is 6"2 my youngest 19 is 6f im sure hes still growing.
Im 4foot dad was 5"2 didnt get the height from us.

We were surprised in y10/11 as he was still about 5.10, we are a tall family and expected him to be well over 6ft. Since then he has grown steadily and had two massive spurts he's currently at 6'3!
He'd done all other aspects of puberty like hair etc at school.

It’s till about 21.

I am 5ft 5 and DH is 6ft2, DS ended up 6ft 5.

I am tall for my family and have women relatives who are 4ft 11.

I found out that the hormone that makes you grow is produced when you sleep. DS has always been someone who likes his sleep and I never forced him out of bed when a teenager.

Agree it's around 21.

My son age 19 is still growing, his older brother is 21 and stopped growing at about 19, but the younger started later and just doesn’t seem to want to stop.