Is there anything at all that will help with teenage boy's height?

[HasaDigaEebowai]

DS1 is 16 and hasn't grown taller for the past 18 months. He is currently 5 foot 5 and whilst ok that isn't tiny, it's certainly small and he is very self conscious about it. Even more so because DS2 who is currently 13 is almost 5 foot 8.

DH and I are not tall (I am 5 foot 4 and DH is 5 foot 10).

Is there anything at all that can boost height? Im concerned that he might have stopped growing already. Is this doctor referral territory or is there nothing that would be done for a teenage boy at this height?

Thoughts appreciated..

I should add, puberty seems to have happened in the normal way (if anything, earlier than his peers) in terms of hair, voice, genitals etc

He’s only 16 so I doubt he’s stopped growing yet. Has he gone through puberty? Facial hair, voice broken etc? Is he otherwise healthy?

If you think he has a medical problem then take him to the GP, but being a short arse is not a medical problem, it’s just being short.

The other thing I’d say is that if he’s otherwise healthy and happy then don’t make a big deal out of his height. He’s probably going to be short, he needs to come to terms with that, and mum panicing that there’s something wrong with him because he’s not reached a respectable manly height is not going to help in the slightest.

Crossposted.

If he’s hit puberty quite early then he’ll stop growing earlier. Again, unless you have reason to worry that he’s unwell then just let him be. Some men are just short.

This is interesting. Same with my DS16, he is 5ft 4. Doubt there’s anything you can do about it anymore than you can do to stop them growing tall. I’m watching though, just incase.

Sometimes boys have another growth spurt at 17-18 and don’t actually stop growing until they’re 25.

I knew one boy who was 6ft5 in sixth form. He was teased about it and treated as a novelty. Poor lad.

pretty sure there is nothign they can do. There are some growth hormone treatments, but usually in cases where there is a medical reason.

He may yet grow some more. 16 isn't necessarily finished, and you would expect him to be a bit taller given his genes.

Tough isn't it?

I imagine he's got a bit more growing to do. My DS has just turned 17, he's a tall lad and recently had a wrist X-ray, the doctor commented that his growth plates hadn't sealed yet so he was still growing . She said boys can easily continue until they're 19/20

My DS had a huge growth spurt between 16-18

This might sounds like codawallop, but my son (now 17) was convinced milk was the answer. Every night he drank a pint at least of full fat milk (blue top milk) and did this for what seemed like bloody ages, but probably was about 8 months (so far). He is currently 5ft 10, so grew 3 inches. He still drinks the milk, cost me a fortune. Anyway it might be rubbish but he said he had done his research on it, so I just let him get on with it. Still, it seemed to work. He's taller than both me and husband now! X

Surely you don't know if there's a medical reason though unless you speak to a doctor? At his age though he would need to speak to them himself (I've just had this conversation about my 8 year old). Do you have growth chart book back from when he was a baby? Ours (Scotland) has a chart you can map height on up to 20. I could see my child is still following his "line" even though he's smaller than his classmates.
We always used to say that smoking stunted your growth - the private school kids here are more "strapping" than the ones at school in deprived areas. But that's on a population level not an individual one! Like you OP I have a tall child as well and I think the comparison makes it harder. I suspect your dc will end up at his dad's height or close to it.

I think he's just going to do his growing a little later than others.

My husband was the same - his mother took him to the doctor at 16 because he was so short. He started growing at 17 and a couple of years later he was 6'3!

I heard that the best predictor is your partners brothers height ?
My son was smallish and is now about 5'8".
Kids seem taller to me and if you look at old films this is true,

Is he consuming enough calcium? Does he eat dairy products?

Has he always been short, was he always short in comparison to others, or has he suddenly stopped growing?

@randomer

I heard that the best predictor is your partners brothers height ? My son was smallish and is now about 5'8". Kids seem taller to me and if you look at old films this is true,

sorry, but that is rubbish and a bit strange. Why the dad's brother? Dad and Mum are the best guide to height.

Genetically he has inherited the genes of his parents. They used to do a thing in the red books where you put in your heights and worked out how tall they would be. Sounds great, until it says something like it is accurate plus or minus 4 inches. So a predicted height of 5'10" could actually end up as 5'6" or 6' 2" which is a big difference.

Trouble is we cannot accurately predict any closer than that. In a broad sense tall parents = tall kids, but not always, if Granny was tiny your kids may have picked up some of those genes. And diet, health, illness etc all also play in. It is too complicated to predict.

@randomer

I heard that the best predictor is your partners brothers height ? My son was smallish and is now about 5'8". Kids seem taller to me and if you look at old films this is true,

What if he doesn't have an uncle?

He may yet have another growth spurt. I have a friend who was 5ft 3 at 16 and ended up 5ft 10. However, he could also just be that height.

He doesn't have a blood relative uncle

I think it's mainly his brother's height which is making him concerned and more self conscious about it. He has always been a little smaller than average but certainly wasn't the smallest in his year. He just suddenly stopped. He eats reasonably well, has always taken a vitamin tablet every morning and a cod liver oil tablet too and so I would be surprised if he had any significant deficiencies.

None of this is helped by his younger brother now referring to him in delight as an "inferior small being"..

I have read about milk (although I thought that was mainly in the US where the milk contains trace growth hormones from the cattle - I might be wrong) but I can certainly switch to FF milk and make sure he drinks more of it if that stands any chance at all of making a difference

I knew a boy from secondary school who was always so tiny and used to be carried around by the other boys as a joke as he was so small. We left secondary school at 15/16 and I went off to college and this boy, let's just call him Adam went to the army after secondary school (over 15 years ago). So after about 5 years when I was at uni, I came back for a weekend for my friends 21st and saw Adam there. I couldn't recognise him as I spent the whole night thinking he was someone else but looked so much like Adam. I asked my friend if that was Adam and she confirmed it was. I was so shocked because the last time I saw him, he was tiny and now he is 6ft 2, broad shoulders and all muscles. I don't know what the army did to him whether they stretched his limbs or if he simply had a growth spurt, but after seeing him I do believe 15/16 isn't the cut off line for boys completing their growth.

On the other hand, my uncle and his wife are very tiny so it's normal for them to produce smaller children. My cousin was so self conscious about this as he always wanted to be tall, so he started playing volleyball and invested in a bar fix where he did pull ups for many years and tbh, he is about 10cm taller than his father. Not sure if the exercise helped but I remember reading from a sports magazine years ago that sports like volleyball help up to 4cm as you're constantly jumping.

I don't know what the army did to him whether they stretched his limbs or if he simply had a growth spurt,

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

MN at it’s best.

dd1 is 5'5" and 15. Looks like she has probably stopped.
dd2 is 5'5" and 12. She has definitely not yet stopped as my poor depleted bank balance will tell you.

She gloats and crows over her 'little' sister. Siblings can really be horrible (and yes, before the mn pile on, we do ask her to tone it down and think of her sister's feelings etc etc)

Fortunately dd1 is very philosophical and doesn't care (and to be fair she is average height for a girl, so it isn't an issue) Her younger cousins are also taller than her.

But the sibling teasing can get a bot relentless.

My son is 17 and was the same as yours. He was around 5 foot 4 until April. He was seventeen in September and has grown to about 5 foot 8 in six months. Funny enough I told him the milk thing and whether it's coincidental I don't know. His diet is shocking and eats rubbish.

He still has loads of growing to do and it did not kick in with my son till he was nearly 17. His brother is also 6 ft. Funny how they grow at different rates.
Hope this makes you feel better.

Plenty of time for you DS to have a growth spurt yet. My two DS’ are 19 & nearly 18, they both grew a lot from 16 & they are both still growing.

I had several appointments with an endocrinologist with my GS. He hit puberty very suddenly, but was not growing much. She looked at his percentiles for height right from birth and said he cannot grow more than 5 ft 6in. They do not give growth hormones for that predicted height. Luckily he couldn't care less about his height. He's always going to be shorter than my DD! You cannot alter anyone's height unless they actually have a growth disorder and would not have any signs of puberty if this were the case.

Ismellphantoms may I ask what age he was when he got puberty?
My son is changing lots atm, and he's very small...but he's still only 11. (He's grown an Adams apple, and other changes too, just no growth changes!) Just want to check it's not too early, thanks.