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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Do you have a small (as in height) toddler?

47 replies

icapturethecastle · 30/01/2011 21:45

My DD is 16 months is in 2 percentile for height and weight. She is in proportion and has followed this line for a long time. She was 6'11lbs when born (about 25 percentile) but steadily made her way down. The HVs have not been concerned with her. She is hitting her milestones well and she eats well. However, since she started walking so many people comment about how little she is. Nearly every day someone says "she looks too small to be walking". I am trying to not start worrying about this but now my DH is going on about it - ie he says do you think there is something wrong etc. I am only 5'1 and my family aren't giants. I think my DH is worried she is only going to be 4ft! I am sure if I take her to the drs they will think I am loon as I was always up their with my DS have managed to stay relatively calm this time. Is there anyone else in the same position?

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Original poster

icapturethecastle · 30/01/2011 21:46

oh dear there not their. Probably more typos but haven't spotted so please excuse.

OP posts:

rubyslippers · 30/01/2011 21:48

My DD is mini

She is 15 months and in 9 - 12 months clothes

She is on or just hovering below 25th centile and has been since birth

She is robust, and hitting all her milestones (quicker than her older brother ever did)

DH and I are short so not surprising that neither of our children are leggy!

WhiteLight · 30/01/2011 21:49

Yep, DS is 4.5 and on 9th centile. He's starting school this year and my friend has suggested I get his uniform at Build-A-Bear!

DD was the same but took a huge stretch between 5-6, so not worried.

IHeartLeith · 30/01/2011 21:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

5GoMadOnAZ650 · 30/01/2011 21:53

Yep :)

Dd4 is 2y3mo and weighs approximately 22lbs and wears 12-18 month clothing although since potty training even those are far too big on the waist and bum. She has had all the tests to see why she is so small and finally the consultants have agreed that she is just petite like the rest of my family.

Ponders · 30/01/2011 21:54

One of my DDs was 5.11 at birth & under 10th centile throughout childhood; the other was 7.4 & 75th centile. They ended up the same height - 5'7! (There are very short people on both sides of the family, & very tall on one side.)

As long as your DD is growing steadily & following the chart she will be fine, & there's a lot to be said for slow-growing children - they are much cheaper to clothe & shoe for a start!

IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern · 30/01/2011 21:55

DS1 has been the same he is now 5 very soon and still in 3 year old clothing.
He is growing faster now than he has in the past and is catching up on his nursery friends.
He was always far more physicaly adventurous and hit his milestones either earlier or average compared to grew like a weed dd.
I always like to look at it that I am getting plenty wear adn use out of his clothes

MotherMountainGoat · 30/01/2011 21:59

The 'biggest' problem when you have a petite child is other people's prejudices. DD2 has been on about the 5-7th percentile for height and weight since birth, and her doctor has absolutely no health or development concerns about her. She's doing well at school and has no problems mixing with same-aged friends who are up to 30 cm taller than her. It's clearly inherited from her two grandmothers, who are similarly, em, vertically challenged.

The problems are the idiotic prejudices of other mothers. Once I was waiting for DD at dance class aimed at 3-4 yo, and someone commented how disgusting it was that ambitious parents were pushing their '2yo' into the group - they were talking about DD who was probably the oldest, but shortest, in the group at the time. Other mothers have taken me to one side and insisted that 'there must be something wrong' and that I have to get medical help. The plus side of this prejudice is that DD is growing up to be a very strong and determined person - I know other smaller children who are also extremely competent as a result of having to prove themselves to others.

sleepwhenidie · 30/01/2011 22:07

This is encouraging, I have ds2 who has been below 0.4th centile since birth (4lbs and now 15lbs ish at 13m). He was not even on charts from 20wk ante natal scan and so was closely monitored throughout pg. He is tiny but developmentally absolutely on track. Very picky eater but he does eat, certainly not skinny. We are going to see a paed just in case, but my ds1 was on 9th centile for his first year then started catching up in his second, now at 5 is very average size. Think ds2 will follow this but from smaller start. He certainly has a big character too and tbh I still feel lucky to have him here and healthy at all after all the worry we had about him being tiny before he was born . There are much worse problems to have than being little!

Pterosaur · 30/01/2011 22:21

There's an adult height chart here, which suggests that if your dd remained on the 2nd centile permanently, she'd be just under 5 ft tall. It's far too early to predict her ultimate height, but 4ft would be well outside the normal range (remember anything on the centile chart is 'normal'), so I'm sure your DH needn't worry about that.

I have what the doctor diagnosed as 'a littlie' too, as well as a very biggie. DH and I are tall, but MIL is very petite, so we think there's some sort of genetic quirk going on there. At 2 years, my littlie was half of 5'2" tall, which is a very unscientific and inaccurate rule of thumb for predicting adult height, but happens to be MIL's height. She's 10 now, second smallest in the class, strong, healthy and happy.

Pterosaur · 30/01/2011 22:26

PS - that chart is American, but I wouldn't have thought it was massively different from UK.

Ponders · 30/01/2011 22:28

Pterosaur, your DD sounds exactly like my littlie - my MIL is under 5' & DD1 was also the 2nd smallest in Y6 & was expected to be only 5' or so herself.

She remained one of the smallest through the first 3-4 years of secondary school, but she went on growing, slowly, long after the others had stopped.

drivingmisscrazy · 30/01/2011 22:32

my DD is just 2, and about 80cm in height, so on about 2nd centile. I've really started to notice in the last couple of months that she really is very little - immobile babies in prams seem to be bigger than her! I must admit that I tend to think of her as normal, and these other children as huge - at a glance I think surely they should be moving by now, before remembering that they are probably only about 14 months old!

Pterosaur DD on your rough calculation will be about 5'2; same as her mum (I'm her other mum, share no genes - cos I am a tall willowy type, obv ); both grandmas are small, and there are small people in both gene pools, with the occasional freakishly tall average person. She's very healthy, bright, chatty, sings and dances, just little. I comfort myself with the thought that she'll be too short to be a model...

Ponders · 30/01/2011 22:32

That chart is a bit odd though - esp as American - 95th centile peaks at only about 5'9, & a lot of American women are way taller than that!

(The droop in height from age 45 is a bit scary too )

Pterosaur · 30/01/2011 22:33

Ponders, my DD1 is 13 and 5'6" - she does everything at top speed and is very impulsive, while DD2 is steadier and more thoughtful. Height can't possibly be a product of personality, but I wouldn't be surprised if the littlie didn't quietly overhaul her sister in the end.

Original poster

icapturethecastle · 30/01/2011 22:34

Thank you everyone for your answers - I think it doesn't help she doesn't much hair either. I am sure most people are saying it in a way oh isn't she cute she is so small but when it is ever second person. I think my DH is joking about the 4ft thing - well I think. Well with all these killer high heels about she could probably make it over 5ft when she is older. Also re clothes - yes definitely get a lot of use - she is in mostly 9-12mth but even the odd 3-6mth but think that says a lot about shops different sizings though! My mum was very organised and I have all my records from a baby I was in the 9 percentile and have come out at 5'1 but then I think my DH's family are taller than my side so fingers crossed. I am just a born worrier!

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Ponders · 30/01/2011 22:37

oh yours sound exactly like mine, only the other way round

fruitshootsandheaves · 30/01/2011 22:37

My children didn't even register on the centile chart, they were off the bottom!
They are all fine, just short.
DD2 was always being measured and well meaning health professionals often showed 'concern' about her height in case it was something to do with her growth hormones. They didn't seem to notice that neither me nor DH are very tall!
DS1 is taller than me now but DD1 and DD2 are both looking as if they will only get to about my height (5'1")

moaningminniewhingesagain · 30/01/2011 22:37

DD is very small too. A few weeks off turning 4, wearing 2-3 trousers that fall down. Trousers in 18-24 months fit on the waist but are just a little too short.

Everyone seems to think she is very clever because her speech/understanding are so good - she is pretty normal it's just that they think she is about 2yo! She weighs about 1kg more than my 2.1yo boy.

Seems mad she is starting school this september when she is one of the smallest at her preschool

But I am a shortarse so I don't expect her to be big. DH is a tall lanky chap though.

Ponders · 30/01/2011 22:41

oh sorry OP, that was to Pterosaur!

I would think it's fairly safe to assume that your DD will end up at least as tall as you; & with the extra height from your DH's side, maybe even taller.

Hope her hair grows more soon though, that will make a difference to how people perceive her. (I don't know why so many people think it's perfectly OK to pass comments all the time on height though - I don't think they'd do the same to people who were very over- or under-weight )

Original poster

icapturethecastle · 30/01/2011 22:47

No I agree you don't really go around saying goodness your baby is very fat! I find myself now saying when people ask how old she is "16 months but she is very little" just to get it in before they can pass comment. But sometimes I think I come across as bit of nut and am inferring there is something wrong with her.

I think her hair is growing into a bit of mullet at the moment!

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confuddledDOTcom · 30/01/2011 23:57

Aww all you with huge babies getting worried!

My daughter was 2 earlier this month and for her birthday she went into 9-12m clothes but that's only really height because her clothes are really baggy.

I'm not worried, her dad was the smallest of his siblings and his sister (who was the biggest) was 15lb at 15 months (exactly the same weight as my daughter at that age). She's only just learned to walk but I think it's more a case of only just got the confidence to walk because she could walk if someone held her hand (literally just holding hands, not holding her up). We don't let her walk outside yet as you have to bend to hold her hand and people don't see her so we don't want her to get knocked over.

Tgger · 31/01/2011 20:59

My DD is not tiny, but she still doesn't have that much hair at 2 and 2 months and I think that makes a lot of people (on first sight) think she's about a year younger than she is.

She weighs about 25 pounds, so not right at the bottom of the charts but certainly in the smaller catergory- this is strange for us as DS was the opposite, he's 4 and 3 months and is right at the top of the charts- could easily be mistaken for a year or two older.

So... we have both... expectations of more mature behaviour than his age behaviour for our huge 4 year old and "oh REALLY!" (when learning that DD is 2)- she seems to have inherited the more petite gene from the pool- my grandma is tiny so it's there somewhere. Mostly though it's the hair for us... it is growing like she is.. just all relative!!!

Tgger · 31/01/2011 21:00

I always say "2 ACTUALLY, she's quite small...... I know she looks younger.. it's the hair...."......

confuddledDOTcom · 31/01/2011 21:16

Do you find you can have her head to toe in pink and people still think she's a boy because she has no hair? I seriously don't get that. Yeah, I keep my "sons" hair in this weird hair style and dress him head to toe in pink for the fun of it!

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