tell me about your unusually small child that grew big...

[TheFlumpFlan]

Dd, no 4 in the family, is tiny. We knew looking at her but today we measured her, her height is below the chart and her weight just below the 2nd. She's a bright button and happy 16 month old but a shock for our tall family, the others and us are 75 th plus. At birth her weight was the 50th but length unknown. We have neglected to weigh her but have been obviously aware she wears clothes for ages

So... stories about growth spurts please!

My dd was 4 lbs at birth. Not prem, no abnormalities- just how she came out. The health visitor said she would always be the smallest in her class at school.
She is 2 and a half now, strapping, strong and tall for her age. She has big feet and her legs seem to get longer overnight!

hmmm... DS was one of the smallest boys in KS1 yrs. Not tiny but definitely wee. Small as a child is a pattern in DH's family who are all taller than avg adults. I don't know when DS sprouted; one day age 10 I realised he was one of the tallest in his class. He'll never be a giant but he's probably heading towards 5'10" as final height (now 14yo).

Well my ds will be lucky to be more than 4ft 6, he is out of proportion and has mild learning difficulties - I take it he's definitely destined for the circus then?

"Circus material"..wtf

The 'circus material' comment is one of the reasons I really fear my very small DS will be bullied when older. Its ok for a woman to be small but not a man seemingly!

My dd was tiny, smallest in her year at primary, wearing clothes 2-3 years below her age.
In the last 6 months, since she started high school, she has shot up and is now very much up there with her peers.

My dd was 3 13 and like a little doll. She was in tiny baby clothes for about 4 month.

She's now 15 month in 2/3 years.

Little chunk has cost me a fortune in clothes but worth it

Apparently the length of the thigh bone at age 3(I think) can be extrapolated to predict adult height. My DD was measured & predicted to be 5'2", and now at 19yrs old she is exactly that.

DH was 5'2" at 16 but is 5'11" now. He grew until he was about 20. My brother was 5'5" at 16 and is now 6'1". I'm hoping the same thing happens with my DCs, ds1 has been 2nd-9th percentile since he was 9 months and we're assuming he will grow late - he's 14 & no signs of puberty yet.

Has she been fussy food wise? Reflux? Allergies.
I saw on mumsnet someone say celiacs can cause them to be small.
How is head circumference?

Children with Cows Milk Protein Intolerance tend to be small too.

Is she getting the recommended 300ml of full fat cows milk a day?

Ds1 was on the 75th percentile at birth then slid down to the 5th by 1 year. Now at age 8 he is tiny (ds2 age 6 has overtaken him) but I no longer worry about it.

He has never been bullied, although finds being taken for his brother's twin irritating. Honestly there are worse things than being short even for boys.

Circus ?? What is he supposed to do there, impress them with his superior maths skills?

DS was 5 lb at birth (42 weeks), now at 3 he is around 110 cm tall and 20kg and I think he is having another growth spurt.

He grew consistantly and constantly from birth. It took him about a year to really catch up with other children and from memory it was at about 18months - 2 years that he had a huge growth spurt and overtook many all of his peers and every older child we know.

Reading this thread for some reassurance.

DS1 (2.6) is under referral to a paediatrician for investigation into height. He was born weighing 8lb5 and at the moment is 25th centile for weight but is off the bottom end of the charts for height. I can't understand how, he looks perfectly proportional and just fits into his 2-3 clothes now.
He is happy, healthy, a good eater, rarely sick.

Dp and I were both short as children but now distinctly average as adults (5ft3 - me 5ft10-Dp). My brother was also very short till puberty, now 6ft2 and as far as I know there are no men in my family shorter than 6ft. I hope this is the case for DS and he will have a growth spurt later in life.

Circus material??

Can I just say thank you to those whi share my dismay at 'circus material'.

Reading things like that makes me worry so much for my boy, but you have made me feel better

jilted DS (9mo) has CMPI and is the same size (but heavier) as my friends 14mo DD! He was only 6lb 3oz at birth and she was 8lb 8oz.

I think that its very hard to predict adult proportions for children, people are almost never right about these things.

Dont worry about the circus comment, I'm sure it wasn't meant to offend. Yes its not a nice or pc thing to say but was probably meant more as trapeze artist size than freak show material. We all say silly things sometimes.

Yep mot always true but in my case it is, I'm tiny

Jesus - circus material that is an appalling thing to say!

Im not sure you can compare a boy to a girl for height, nor that a comparison of 1 unrelated child to another would mean a huge amount.
But i guess with allergies it would depend on the effect it has. If they are constantly sick and feel bad when they eat , eating less.
Something like celiac which damages the gut and stops absorption.
Also when the allergy noticed and food avoided, put on special milk etc as growth slows after first year

Thank you all.

No allergies, ds had horrendous cmp allergy and she's never had similar issues.

She's ok at eating, a bit less than normal in one go than average but enjoys eating and trying food. Positively adores food.

Has milk, plus still breast fed at morning and night.

I've attempted to check her head, seems to be between 50 and 75, does on reflection seem bigger. Make s her look younger with chubby chops.

Her thigh bone is tiny.

Very cold, you'd be unnatural not to worry but time time solves a lot. I think what people blurt out and how they actually treat people is a huge huge gap.

By the way ds with cmp allergy caught up very fast and grew out of it for those worrying

Did you measure and weight at home?
If so was she stood up?

Had a friend who was the youngest on seven, the older 6 were all tall as adults and she was petite (like me). Genetics are a funny thing!

If you look further back in your family tree you may find unusually small or tall relatives that do throw a curve ball.

Also there is the age of stopping growing. Although I am tiny I didn't stop growing until my late teens (unusual for a female) MIL & SIL stopped growing at 11 and are 5'10!!, Dh stopped growing at 14 (very young for a boy) and is 6'3.

My dc heights are a source of wonder, curious to see where they eventually end up (looking likely to be a complete mix of short, average and tall)

There's a joke in my family about a cousin of mine, he was a wee thing for years and years, played Tiny Tim every year until 12 or 13 - hit about 14, shot up like a weed, 6'2" now and a professional athlete.

Not very dramatic, and I'm still on the short side at 5'3", but I was always the shortest in my class, and for several years I was 4'11", I thought that was it. Then at about age 15 I grew four inches in six months and some girls I went to school with who had never been shorter than me, some the tallest in the class when we were young, are now shorter than I am as adults.