13yo DS being mistaken as 7yo DS twin

[Confusedmuch1]

My oldest DS is still mistaken for an 8yo. Youngest DS is about to turn 8 and people assume they're twins.
Ds2 is normal height/size for their age. Ds1 is slightly taller but similar build. No signs of puberty starting at all.
Should I be worried?

Well clearly not, if your 7 year old is the same size?

I think you need to see the GP, his height falls totally off the bottom of the centile chart for a 13 year old boy.

Are you sure your ds is only 120cm at 13? My 8 year old DD is 5.5 inches 16 taller than your 13 year old
boy?

I’ve just looked up average heights of boys. This is approx the average height of a 7 year old boy.

Yes, op, please go to the GP for a referral to an endocrinologist.

My son was the same at that age. He measured himself every day and was really worried he was going to be short. His male friends towered over him and some had facial hair at 14. He’s almost 16 now and last year suddenly starting growing, like 7/8 inches in the year.

Im not sure when puberty started, he just suddenly seemed to have hairy legs and a deeper voice when he was around 15. He’s never been smelly so the hairy legs were the first signs I noticed!

Do they have the same father?

At 13 ds1 was still quite small and not showing signs of puberty. He's now 15, definitely gone through puberty and about 5'7 so not massively tall but it all happens quite suddenly.

4'0" seems very small for a 13 year old, my 3yo DD is only 6 inches shorter. Have you had concerns before this point? Is your son very conscious of his size compared to peers? Definitely book a GP appointment, he may just be a very petite late bloomer but being such a low centile is certainly worth getting checked out.

Ds is a late bloomer but has grown 5” in the last year when he hit 14. However I wouldn’t suggest you wait as 4ft is very small. My kids have both followed their growth curve in the way of heights, have you ever plotted to see if yours followed the curve?

Please take this child to a doctor.

My dh is 6'3'' but I have seen photos of him at 16 where he is absolutely tiny, by far the smallest in his class. He had a huge growth spurt at 17 and still has pains from when his bones grew so quickly. I know that's not the norm but isn't it more common for boys to develop later? Do you know when his dad grew/went through puberty? I would go to the gp for advice - my mil did that for dh and they did suggest growth hormones but she waited it out as he had a tall dad and brother so she thought he might grow at some point.

My youngest son is small for his age - 13 and 4ft10. He has told me is the shortest in his year. But I know he is growing because I measure him every 3 months or so, is your son following a growth curve or has he just stopped growing?

I would look at your family too, a lot of the boys on my side of the family had puberty late. My brother was tiny at 13 and 6ft tall by 16, whereas my husband and oldest son have both always been tall. I think my youngest takes after me. So I am not concerned at this point, but if his growth either slowed or stopped I would be taking him to the GP and checking further.

The measurements that you have given are abnormal, book a doctors appointment.

You need to look up the Royal College of Paediatrics growth charts and check where he is on there

Has his size been discussed with you by doctors? Just thinking he must not even be on the growth charts at only 4ft0 by 13, surely it would raise concerns medically?

Your nearly 8 year old is the average height and weight of an 8 year old so no, he is not small for his age. However, your 13 year old son is incredibly short and underweight for his age. Does he eat enough calories? Has he had any serious childhood illnesses? You really should take him to the doctor.

Obvioiusly, as people said, look into it, but also just for yourself, there are so many 12/13 yos in ds2's year that look like they're form the primary school next door and conversely, a few that look about 15!

Op what does your doctor say? Presumably he's been sick before and they've said something? My 8yo is very tall and from time to time they measure him and take his weight etc

Your DS is significantly shorter and lighter than my very premature DS10 who has always been small and light due to his rough start in life. your DS is, as pp have mentioned, right at the bottom on the height and weight chart for his age. Have you still got his red book - has he always been near the 5th centile or did he used to be 25th, 50th or 75th etc?

Please book GP appt asap, there are guidelines on what to look out for that the dr can follow. Go armed with info about the age at which you, dh and aunts and particularly uncles entered puberty and family heights (you will be asked lots of q about this)

See your GP

13 isn’t late to start puberty. Some of my DS’s friends were little boys then still but they all got through eventually!
if you’re worried see a GP for sure, although there’s a big range.
Was he a small baby/young child?

I was watching Grange Hill lately ,all the early episodes,and I noticed how small so many of the boys were in the first few years they were at school ..some were positively tiny ,yet by the end 5 th form all relatively the same size .
my kids were all whoppers so I had the opposite worry ,but generally mine all ended up a similar size to the friends they bring round .

I agree that you should see a doctor OP. My DD is the smallest in her year, and is tiny compared to her friends but even she has hit 140cm in year 7.

4ft is very small at 13

Ds is 13 and 5 foot 8, he is on the tall end compared to school friends but your Ds measurements don’t sound on the chart

My 4 year old is that height! I would be very concerned if a 13 year was old was that tall and would have had him to the see the doctor well before now