Predicting a child's adult height

[popsycal]

I know that this can't be done accurately, but I seem to remember there is a little sum that you can do where you take the parents' heights, do something to them then take child's height at a particular age.....

Anyone know what I am talking about - or do I just sound like Johnny Ball!

BTW - I am not getting out those centile charts.....they have been conveniently lost since I hate them so much.

Anyone?

There is a sum for it in Dd's red book, but it looks very complicated.

I'm sure i remember someone telling me that a childs height at 2 or 2.5 should be doubled to find there average height as an adult.

Apologies if that is very wrong. Have never worked it out myself

The simple one is something like double the height at 1.75 for girls and 2.25 for boys. However it is only an average and my dds are a classic example of the wrongness of averages. dd1 was below 25th centile throughout childhood, dd2 was above 75th, obviously they were way different heights at every age, and they have ended up the same height (5'7).

(dd1 also had tiny feet throughout and the HV said children were like puppies, big feet=big adult and vice versa. Wrong again!)

Another one I've been told is take the mid-point between mother's and father's heights and add 7cm for a boy (can't remember girls but could be minus 7 cm or plus 3.5cm?). So I'm 5'7", dh is 6", mid-point 5'9 1/2", 7 cm is roughly 2.5" (sorry don't do metric) so ds should be around the same height as dh. Think it was in the red book so worth digging it out if you can bear it.

I used the table in the DS's red book and it's just as eddm described. I know when I was born the doctor did some kind of measurement of the bones in my hand and calculated my adult height as 5'7", which is exactly right. I'd love to have had that done with DS.

Just thinking about it, the table in the red book would've put me at 5'9", so maybe not so accurate but it could give a ballpark figure.

I thought if you measured the child at 2yrs 3 months then double it. If this is right DD will be 5ft 3in, and DS will be over 6ft!

If we go by your thing kid then dd will be 180cm.
Heaven help her if she turns out that tall
She always has been quite tall, on the 91st to 98th centiles, but is fairly average in her class.
Will be interested to see how ds goes (he's only 15m now), but although he too is in the higher centiles, he isn't so obviously tall as dd was.
BTW I'm 5'6" and dh is 6'

Posey, I am 183cm

jaysus my ds was 1m at 20 mths old
he should by all accounts be clse to 7ft at maturity
I'm 5ft 6 his dad is 5ft 11
How?? DS has just turned 10 now and is 5ft 1 and has size 6 feet!

kb, calm down, these are AVERAGES. If your kid isn't average then ignore.

Heres a Height Calculator My trouble is I know DS' height now in cm and I need another blooming calculator to convert the end result to feet and inches.

Right, got that Here -So he's maybe gonna be 6ft 3.

Oh, that one in the red book said he'd be somewhere between 5ft 2 and 6 ft 2. Well, I probably could have saved myself the effort of all that fancy numberwork. Kept me busy for a while I suppose, makes puzzle donkey a walk in the park.

I doubt anything can predict height very well! Sorry! But its such continuous variation - the factors affecting final height are so many, I don't think anyone can be accurate!
Killjoy Lisa

I know....just intrigued....

I've wondered a lot about this as dp is 6,4" and I'm 5,9" and I've always imagined she is bound to be tall. So far dd is really quite small in height and build. She's only 18 months so I can't use that calculator that Furball posted a link to. What's the best way to work it out in that case?

Jan H woud be ok if he could play basketball LOL
I know he's tall but he;s lovely

message withdrawn

My mom's 5,4", my dad was 5,11", my brother's 6,6" and I'm 5,9". How does that make sense?

According to Furball's link DD (who is just 2 and is 89cm - just under 75th centile) will be 1.67m, which is nearly 5 feet 5

I am 5 feet, and DH is 6 feet 1 - so maybe.

Nutrition makes quite a bit of difference doesn't it? Eg if your parents were small children during rationing after WWII, they may not have reached their full height potential. In Thailand in the cities a lot of the teenagers are huge in comparison to the adults; they think Macdonalds may have something to do with it!

Shrinking Americans

ok here goes from red book only have it for daughter so step 3 will be different for boys.
1: add mum and dad's heights together
2: divide this by 2
3: take away 7.
This is the height of child at adult
but according to red book actual height may be 8.5 cm more or less than this.
so is not very accurate IMO

well ds is 20 months...and 88cm when measured the other day........anyone can do a calculation for me.....
I am about 5'6" and dh is about 5'9"

Double a girl's height at 2yo or a boy's height at 2.5yo....
In which case DS1 will be 5'6", and DD maybe a little shorter.
In the meantime, I am 5'8", DH is 5'11", the grandfather's are 6'0" and 6'4", the grannies 5'3" and 5'6". You can see why I think these rules of thumb are rubbish.

Janh - how tall are you in feet and inches then?
I thought 180cm was about 7ft Think I may have converted wrong!
PS didn't mean to cause any offence by saying I hoped dd didn't end up too tall.