to be furious at BBC story saying 5 feet tall is 'stunted', 'abnormal' and justifies bullying?

[l39]

I've just run accross this article on the BBC and I'm fuming.

I am four feet eleven tall. This is my natural healthy height. One of my five daughters is taller than I am, but the others may well end up my height. They are healthy and perfect.

The girl in the article needed human growth hormone - she wasn't naturally short. But the article totally ignores the existence of people who are genetically short. From the article it sounds like anyone under five foot four is in need of treatment!

It includes a picture where she is about 8 inches shorter than her friend. There is no way the girl is 5 foot tall in the first picture and five foot four in the second, yet according to the article that's the difference the growth hormone made. I'm so angry that the article implies she was bullied because she was abnormal, then when she became normal the bullying stopped.

A) Being five feet tall is not abnormal!

B) Bullying is not due to something wrong with the victim! The faulty person is the bully!

I was never bullied about my height and I wouldn't be even an inch taller if you paid me. I am spitting blood that this article implies my lovely daughters, if they don't grow taller than me, will be abnormal and justify bullying towards them.

AIBU?

I'm 5 foot tall. I was never bullied because of my height. I was called 'titch' in fun - it never bothered me because it was true!

If her parents were both six foot and no one else in her extended family was below average height then it may well have caused medical concern that she was "barely five feet tall" at 14, since she wasn't following what her genetics and environment indicated would have been a normal growth pattern for her.

However I remember listening to a Radio 4 documentary "Am I Normal" about height, where they were discussing the rise in diagnoses of "idiopathic short stature". Basically person X being short due to unknown causes so not growth hormone deficiency or other conditions. Apprently in the US there are a lot of shorter than average children and teenagers being given growth hormone to essentially "top-them-up" from just below average to average height, which seems like excessive medicalisation of the bell curve variations in height you'd expect in any population! And once the shortest group has gained a few inches, the ones that had been just above them will then be the new shortest and the drug companies will no doubt start marketing at them. Bizarre.

Just a suggestion but I wonder whether the "barely five foot tall" is a misprint - the story would make more sense if it said "barely four foot tall" - the photo would make more sense then too?

I agree with what the OP and the other posters said.

Just to give another pov...

I am 5 foot 7 inches tall, my mum is barely 5 foot 2 inches. I was taller than my mum when I left primary school (aged 11) and stopped growing when I was 14 years old.

I was always the tallest girl, in all school photos up until I was 14 I was taller than the boys and girls, sometimes was taller than some teachers.

I got teased about my height and all through school I felt like a giant.

Now I'm in my 20s I know that 5 foot 7 isn't hugely tall, but that feeling of being unlike everyone else has stayed with me.

I remember that Radio 4 documentary - there was an Armenian-American man who was furious that his DS was being told he was abnormally short and needed growth hormones, when people of Armenian heritage are naturally shorter on averae than many western Europeans.

Erm... looking at the photographs I don't think the main problem was not her height but that she did look like a girl much younger than her age.

agree with nancy. yabu

I am 4'11, and have never suffered any sort of abuse for being short. I can honestly say it has in no way been a feature of my life (despite having to take up even petite jeans - very short legs!). When I was 14 I was picked on for having acne, being very short sighted and having greasy hair, but never for my height!

Dd1 was referred to hospital by hv when she was 2, for being short (she was 0.2 centile), she had blood and urine tests and her height documented, we waited for 3 months then spoke to a consultant who, looked at dh and I and said, 'well I expect she is short, because you are' - no shit sherlock! The hv had talked about growth hormones, and used the word 'stunted', it was all really upsetting.

I did wonder whether the height was a mix up, but on googling see that other articles refer to her being 'nearly 5 foot' too.

I'm 5'1" and as a child I dreamed about having that operation where they break your legs and insert pins to pull the ends apart as they heal to create longer bones and make you taller.

I did/do/always will hate being short.

DS is 3 and already tall for his age - for which I am eternally grateful. He takes after his Dad. DD looks like she might be short like me and I feel very sorry for her.

I hate not being able to reach anything, not ever being taken seriously, having to always take trousers up, hate being called "titch" and "cute". I'd kill to be 4 inches taller.

Didn't see a problem with the article.

I can't see the word stunted in the link. YABU.
I am just under 5' 2'' and have never been bullied. being small is not a problem to me.
i think mine is related to my diabetes diet becasue my mum said that for over a year i didn't grow and then they changed my diet and my insulin. shame. but hey ho. I have and have always had great confidence.

I'm 4'10" and was bullied all through school for my height, you lot who never got hassle for it are damn lucky!

The article does make me because my ds has a skeletal dysplasia, ie dwarfism, and he won't be able to be "fixed" through growth hormones. The only way to increase his height would be through long and painful operations/procedures, and I'd rather wish he didn't have to go through those, but that he could just be accepted and loved the way he is/will be.

I'm sorry but I don't really see a problem with the article and...I think growing to only 5 ft nowadays should be investigated

I'm 5'11" and got teased for being 'lanky' and often still get comments (especially when I wear really high heels, which I don't buy from M&S because agedknees is right!). Short or tall, it's being different that annoys them.

Ronaldinhio really? why? Most short people I know (and I know a few - makes eye contact easier ;)) have short families. Hence the height, it's not abnormal just how the genes work.

If someone's whole family were tall and they were the only short one, then yes investigation is needed. But otherwise, growing to under 5ft, although uncommon isn't unnatural.

I have a friend who is 4'11". She is perfectly proportioned, her mother was short too, her father is only about 5'8" - fairly normal height for her gene pool then. I don't recall her being particularly bullied at school.

My mother was 5'1"; her mother (my Nan) was 4'11", and her mother was 4'9" tall. Nothing abnormal about it unless there are other signs to suggest otherwise - and I do think the subtle slant of the article is wrong, but I think the OP is a little OTT to be furious about it.

Really, Ronhaldino! Whilst I am aware that I am a shortarse, I really never thought I was in any way unusually short. I know quite a lot of people who are around my height (everyone in my family, for eaxample). Should very tall people (say over 6 foot) be investigated too?

I think the problem here is that the BBC article does not explain and people think growth hormone is all about height or treating a lack thereof.

Having growth hormone treatment is NOT just about increasing height although it does make people grow - if someone, like my DC, is now only growing 1 cm a year for the past 3 years, due to radiotherapy to the brain which causes the pituitary gland to not produce growth hormone anymore - so someone like our DC needs help. Not so he'll be taller than me (5'4") if he reaches adulthood, but because:

Growth hormone is meant to:

• help increase blood sugars to go back up if they drop low (and people with growth hormone deficiency cannot get their blood sugars up alone)
• make sure muscle, tendons and body cells grow as they should
• make bone density / mass strengthen so as children go from teenage to young adulthood, their bones become as strong as they're meant to,
• and it does encourage the body to grow which means they grow taller.
• they also remain 'cherubic' in their face so will always look 'cute' and chubby / round faced like a toddler

So before you judge people who have had to have growth hormone, don't just judge by photos and BBC reporting.

Growth hormone deficiency is a serious medical condition and it's not as easy as taking a little tablet - it means daily injections before bedtime (and with a 5 year old that's not easy). Without it our son would only reach about 3 foot something and have more serious medical problems such as entering puberty at age 6 or late at age 16.

So yes, this girl in the pic has grown to a more 'acceptable' height, but doctors don't give out growth hormone so people can just grow to a 'reasonable' height!!