"He's always been on the 99th centile"

[StickerPlace]

I'm in a bad mood this morning. So I may we'll BU.

But I've seen this twice today. (Granted was on the same thread about child size)

But I feel like I've read/heard that comment so many times. But it can't be true?

Or are the 1% of parents with 99% children very keen to talk about that?

(FWIW just weighed/measured mine for new dance uniform as had a growth spurt and nothing fits and 11th centile.)

@BlackeyedSusan

People only mention the outliers. The silent majority are silent.

This. Mine is pretty average (although I'm dutch so our average is taller than you guys). My brother has 3 kids: one average, one tall, one so tall he's off the chart (predicted to grow well over 6.5 feet). My brother is also tall, as is my dad. We don't really talk about the height of the more average ones because my nephew really stands out, so that's what you discuss.

Women are obsessed with it .... it is like a brag. But hey why not?
You are always free to ignore them or change the subject

MNs does have a disproportionate number of people with very tall dc though.

I'm 5ft 9 & work with teenagers, most are not towering over me. Having said that I'm also told by others I must be 5ft 11 etc. I'm definitely not.

And his size gets commented on A LOT by people, so the subject gets bought up a lot.

Dont start the convo if you dont want the answers

@JaninaDuszejko

And also the centile charts are out of date, particularly for weight.

The centile charts reflect the healthy range, not the overweight range.

Not really, the charts without context especially for an older child means v little.

The charts show the normal range I think only about 4 in 1000 healthy children fall outside of the charts. The charts can infect reflect the overweight range because it’s about proportionality. Proportionality is 2 standard deviations either side so for instance if a childs weight is the 50th but their height is 99.6 the child is underweight but also if weight is 50th but height is 0.4 the child is overweight

Same here with eldest son. When he was 2.5 we were in a shop and he kept opening and shutting the door to hear the bell tinkle. Assistant asked why he wasn't in school and was shocked to be told he was 2.5. He went to a middle school and was the tallest in the school in his first year. He is 6'6". Now in his 30s.

My DD was always on 99 and then shot up and was still 'on the line'. She is 12, and is already 5"8. Everything in proportion. Not bragging about it, as it was scary at first and I took her to my GP, who sent her to children hospital. After numerous tests they have decided that everything is fine and she is just tall. I am ok with that now, although, wasn't impressed, when she outgrew me 🤣

My oldest was a preemie but born in the 95% (height and weight) he's now well off the charts, as a teen he's bigger than most adults and has been since about 10 year old - for a preemie being big was good, he rivaled full-term babies.

I was freakishly 'long' as a child (they always said long not big as I was very underweight for my height) and stalled at puberty (age 12-13) at 5 foot 7 and haven't grown height-wise since although my weight went up so now as an adult I'm just 'average'.

We just make big babies, I don't know my younger kids % as they haven't been checked during Covid as the clinic closed but they aren't small... they were 75% and 50% at birth (so seems to be going down with each child oddly) but I think they have gone up since birth.

Probably because all the bang average sized children aren't remarkable. I find people who have tiny children comment on it just as much. Also average sized children aren't being judged by adults for no good reason & through no fault of their own and their parents probably don't need to defend their size.

my son has followed the 99% for height and weight since 4 weeks old.
He is now 14 and still following 99%.
im not sure what this about- as usual MN making no bloody sense!
some people are tall , some not
So what...

I had a 99th centile baby and toddler (weight and height) who tailed off was 98th at 4, 91st at 5 etc. Stopped at 75th ish for a while now. I do sometimes think the centiles aren't quite right because he never seemed overly tall and AlWays looked slim to Normal build. But he was genuinely 99th centile so they do exist 😂

I've managed to never have this conversation and my teens are pretty tall, I suppose. If anyone comments, I just say, yes, their dad is 6ft 5 and that's usually the end of it.

Wouldn't have a clue about centiles. Don't think I've known since the days of the red book.

Well I've just looked and they are definitely 99th centile

@Filthyslattern

my eldest son was consistently on the 99.6th centile and then went above it but still followed the line if you see what i mean. He's an adult now and 6 foot 8.

We have the same son , my 10lb 1 baby is 20years old and 6 foot 8 .

I only spoke about centile charts because other mums would ask me due to him always looking so much older than he was.

DS was always off the chart - one health visitor gave me a separate larger graph to file in his red book so we could chart his growth more accurately rather than put a cross in the area above the 100 mark.

He is now 16 and 6ft5 - possibly still growing. He has always been very slim and lean but is a large frame.

His height was always commented on especially as me and DH are not particularly tall. DS is adopted so we never had an idea of how tall he was likely to get.

Everyone on MN seems to have a baby or child on the 99th centile. Which is statistically impossible

Buying age-appropriate clothes and shoes is much easier for those closer to the 'average', so perhaps those parents mention the size of their children less?

Statistically over 99.99% of the population have more than the average number of legs.

I’ll mix it up for you. My 5mo is on the 0.4th centile

Whoo hoo, I win at MN bingo.
Twins ✔️
Child with AD / SEN ✔️
Children on 99th percentile ✔️

there were be a significant problem if they were "normal" weight and 99% height.

DS is and has always been 99 or above for height and 25th percentile for weight. He's fine, just a total pain to buy trousers for. We have DHs old baby book with charts and he was the same, so just genetics, as they both eat truckloads of food.

(Also, the top line is named 95th centile not 99th as far as I know.)

No idea about others but my ds was always on the 99th centile according to his red book. I used to get him weighed so much and worried so much about his weight. People would always make comments about how huge he was. He's still got a broad and strong physique but quite short now so no idea of his centile. My dd is very slim, she was 50th centile as a newborn but I never got her weighed as was a lot more chilled out second time round. She's still slim and far less broad than ds.

@JaninaDuszejko

And also the centile charts are out of date, particularly for weight.

The centile charts reflect the healthy range, not the overweight range.

That’s… not how distribution graphs work. You can just pick the bit you approve of and claim that’s the population distribution.

@Hellosunshiner

(Also, the top line is named 95th centile not 99th as far as I know.)

Top line in DS's red book is 99.6 but that is 10 years old so newer ones may be different.

@Hellosunshiner

(Also, the top line is named 95th centile not 99th as far as I know.)

It’s 99.6 actually