DS is short!

[MrsDutchie88]

Hi everyone

I'm a little concerned my DS is short. He recently started school, and we go to plenty of playdates, hes always the shortest one. Hes currently in the 25th percentile but honestly I dont know what to do, I'm 5'1 but DH is 6'1 I honestly thought he would take some of his dads genes. Just curious if some kids start out small and have growth spurts along the way that push them to 50th-75th percentile? Any advice for me as I'm panicking a bit.

Has he always been in this height centile?

Yes. He was 50th percentile at birth, and then declined to 5th percentile, he's only recently moved to 25th percentile

Is he also young in the year? 25th centile is shorter than average, but very much in the normal range, and I think also well within the range you'd expect given parental heights.

If you took 100 boys his age and lined them up in height order, you'd expect 24 to be shorter than he is. In a two form entry, so 60 pupils, 30 boys, you'd expect roughly 7 to be shorter than he is – but if he's also one of the youngest, then that could be why he always seems the smallest.

If he's well in himself, eating well, full of energy, I'd try not to worry about it.

25th is very normal and you aren't tall yourself. Its likely he simply takes after you.

Thanks. I was hoping he would be a little taller. But yes he's always one of the youngest.

I'm 5ft2 and my partner is 5ft11. My daughter was always 25th percentile for length until 12 months. She wasn't measured again until just after 2 and she had dropped to the 1st percentile. She's 25th-50th percentile for weight consistently so is short for her weight. Around 3 she moved up to the 2nd percentile and she's now 4 and a half and is around the 4th percentile.
She started school in September at 4 and a few weeks swamped by her aged 2-3 uniform. There are classmates that are probably 6 inches taller than her but there are also quite a few that are close to her height or an inch or two bigger. She's settled in nicely but is a bit sensitive if other children tell her she can't be 4 as she's too small. The school are keeping an eye on her to make sure she keep up physically. The after school club had to buy her a step so she could reach the toilet!

I was always on the 2nd percentile and my partner was small until puberty. She's under paeds for reflux and food allergies and they aren't concerned. We had a few extra checks at 2 to check she was now following the 1st percentile and not still falling. She's been tested for coeliacs too because of her allergies but that was negative.

Ds is a summer baby and was always around the 25% centile or so. He always looked tiny in his year-a contrast to my dds who were both tall winter babies (75%-95%).

I did notice that his friends tended to be similar height, so he didn't stand out among them, although he was normally still the smallest. He did say in year 9 that he was called "Shorty" at school, and he wasn't sure if that was because he was a shortarse or that he always wore shorts (even to school) but it didn't bother him at all.
He started growing in year 10. I particularly remember going to pick him up from an afterschool club and he came out with another boy who was noticeably smaller, perhaps 4-5" smaller. And I asked which year he was in, expecting him to be year 8, possibly 9 and he said they were the same year. That was the first time I'd seen him with another boy from his year who was clearly smaller than he was.
He's nearly 18yo and a respectable 5'8/9, almost exactly the same height as dh.

I think he'd like to be a smidgen taller so he could look down on dh, even from a small difference, but otherwise it doesn't bother him.

This is reassuring

My DS is a summer baby - I do worry if being short will ever bother him, but he may grow taller over the years. Do you mind me asking how tall you and your DH are?