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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

Is 'double the height at 2' usually right?

24 replies

whyno · 07/08/2013 08:21

Hello, I wonder if you can share your experiences of this?

My DS is just two and I have recently measured him. If I double his height it shows that he will be 5 ft 6. I've understood that this is a fairly reliable indication of his adult height. Is that so? I am small (5'2) but my DH is very tall (6'1) so it seems a bit weird.

If I'm honest I'm freaking out that I've stunted his growth somehow by not getting him to eat enough vegetables!

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LeMousquetaireAnonyme · 07/08/2013 08:28

Gosh I hope not! DD1 and DD2 were 98 cm at 2 yo, which would make them 196 cm as adult (more than 6'4").
I was 98 cm too BTW, I am "only" 5'8" (173).
It is probably a fluke which works for the average children but not the rest.

lottiegarbanzo · 07/08/2013 08:34

No it isn't and if you think about the height differences between men and women, achieved through different amounts of growth in the teens, so not expressed in toddlers, you'll realise it couldn't possibly be right.

NoSnowJustSand · 07/08/2013 08:36

Oh my goodness, please let this not be true as I didn't measure either child at 2. Luckily my DD's feet are a good indicator of the giant she will become.

MirandaWest · 07/08/2013 08:37

I was 3 feet at two according to my mum but am not 6 feet now :)

ThreeDaughtersLoveSandwiches · 07/08/2013 08:55

If you follow the centile he is on in his red book that will give you a rough guide on how tall he will be as an adult. I think it can be wrong by a good couple of inches either way though.

Plus when they say age 2 do they at the beginning of the year or the end? DD3 is just about to turn 3 and she has grown an awful lot in the last year.

cory · 07/08/2013 09:02

lottiegarbanzo Wed 07-Aug-13 08:34:49
"No it isn't and if you think about the height differences between men and women, achieved through different amounts of growth in the teens, so not expressed in toddlers, you'll realise it couldn't possibly be right."

This.

The men in my family tend to be normal sized toddlers, among the shortest in their class in junior school and then shoot up to 6 footers in their mid-teens.

RandallPinkFloyd · 07/08/2013 09:03

The feet thing is rubbish too, sorry.
My XDH wears size 11's - he's 5'8"
His mum wears size 8's - she's barely 5'3"

I think we just have to wait and see!

flatmum · 07/08/2013 09:05

I do think that if eithe to aren't is tall or short it would throw it out. I am not quite 5 ft and DP is 6 ft so we can see differences in ours according to which genes they've got. oldest and youngest are more like me and were much shorter at 2 (and shorter babies) than ds2 who is almost the same height now as ds1 despite 3y age gap. ds1 is a shortie like me and is at least a head shorter than all the other boys in his class at 8. I think the percentiles in the red book may well be more indicative - he was always around the second percentile, never about 6th (the HV used to give me grief about failure to thrive) whereas his brother was bang on 50th percentile all the way.

they're all happy and healthy though which is the main thing!

flatmum · 07/08/2013 09:05

parent!

marriednotdead · 07/08/2013 09:08

My DD was also 3 foot at aged 2. She was the tallest in her year when she was around 11/12 but as an adult she is 5'8".

There are calculators online but the centiles charts are a fair guide.

Original poster

whyno · 07/08/2013 09:19

Thanks for the comments. The centile charts are almost the same as the double the height at 2 thing, if you look at them, so if that's not always true then neither are the centile charts. They seem just as unlikely in my DS case. Anyway, pleased to see others don't think it's set in stone from such an early age either. Hopefully it's not my cooking then!

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celticclan · 07/08/2013 09:19

For girls you are supposed to double their height at 18 months and its 2 years for boys. They do say it is fairly accurate.

However I have also read that very good vs bad nutrition can skew the results.

Ds1 was a dream to feed, ate everything in sight, probably ate a little too much! According to the height predictor he should end up being 5:10 which I think is probably an inch or too two too high. Ds2 ate nothing and was very underweight, the height predictor has him down at 5:4, I think he will be a couple of inches taller than that.

bruffin · 07/08/2013 09:25

I'm 5'2 and DH is 6'2 and DS (18 next month) is 6ft and DD (16 next month ) is 5'6
DS was always tall, ie on or around 75th centile by his 2nd birthday and climbed to about 90th but probably more around 80+ centile now. DD was not always tall. I think she was always between 25th and 50th centiles but started climbing the centiles when she hit puberty and has ended up about 75th.

soontobeslendergirl · 07/08/2013 09:44

We measure our two every year on their birthday (or as near as we remember, sometimes a few days out) and mark it up in their Red book.

At age 2 - No1 son was 95cm giving him a predicted height by the double it method of about 6' 3" He has regiously followed his centile chart and the calculators you use based on parental height estimate between 6' 2" and 6' 6"

However, at age 2 No2 son was only 87.5cm which would on the double it basis would make him about 5' 9" . He has the same parents so his parental height calculator obviously comes out the same as No1 son. so, at 2 he was about the 50th centile but he then shot up and when he was measured at his pre school check at 4 and a half, he was 116 cm, so in the blue band. He now at age 12 sits slightly above his brother at the same age but has hit puberty earlier so I guess they will probably be about the same sizr eventually.

So my opinion is, it works sometimes :)

Prozacbear · 07/08/2013 11:30

I'd agree with soontobeslendergirl - works sometimes! Unhelpful it you're not the 'sometimes'.

DS was 98cm at 2, which I'd expect him to almost double. His dad and I are both tall beans, and all my male family is 6'3"+ so ...

I think it's probably more useful to look at your family, to gauge height.

MiaowTheCat · 07/08/2013 12:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

soontobeslendergirl · 07/08/2013 16:12

Yes, My OH was average all the way through school and shot up when he was 17. On the other hand, I was always tall for my age. I'm 5'10 and only take a size 6 and OH is just over 6'2 and takes a 12. So I have small feet for my height but his are probably about right.

Boys are currently 5'7" and a bit and size 9 feet - just turned 13 and just starting puberty but yet to have a real growth spurt and almost at almost 12 I think No2 son is about 5'5" but he gets measured at the weekend - he has size 8 feet and is further on in puberty than No1 son but not had a growth spurt yet either.

rednellie · 08/08/2013 16:06

My children are all going to be teeny tiny if their current height is anything to go by, one of my boys isn't even on the bottom of the chart. Whereas if you do the parental height thingimabub they should be in the 96th centile...

I'm not sure any of these indicators work that well on individuals rather than on a population wide scale.

lljkk · 08/08/2013 18:20

not valid ime

littlemisssarcastic · 08/08/2013 19:49

I measured DS at 2 years old. He was 3ft 2". Now he is an adult, he is 6ft 3".
I measured DD at 18 months. She was 2ft 7". I will let you know if she grows up to be 5ft 2" tall, although you'll be waiting years and years a while.

stickortwist · 08/08/2013 19:55

Timing of puberty makes a big difference... The later the puberty the taller ypu will be. This seems to be very true for the men in dh family.... He left school at 16 at 5 5... Hes 6ft 2 now. My boys are all on the small size but will probably be tallish adults

Mum2Fergus · 08/08/2013 20:02

Baby centre .com and look for centile charts, you can put in current age and height and it estimates future height ...

ProphetOfDoom · 08/08/2013 20:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

minipie · 08/08/2013 22:35

I have read that if you take the centile your 2 year old is on, then work out the height of that centile for adults, there is an 80% chance that your 2 year old will be within 5cm of that adult height.

so if your 2 yr old girl is on the 75th centile, and 75th centile for women is 170cm (I am guessing here!) then there is 80% chance that your daughter will end up somewhere between 165 and 175cm.

that's quite a lot more vague than double the height!

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