One child very short and slow growing ?

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I have 6 children -5 children are either tall or average height. I am fairly short (5 foot 3) my dh is 6 foot. My older son is just coming up to 6 foot at 14 and my 16 year old daughter is around 5 foot 5.

My 9 year old is still tiny!. She is 122cm today and just has small features, small face and hands everything! My 5 year old is pretty much the same height as her.

I did take her to the doctors about 2 years ago because I was worried about it and she made me feel like a right fool just saying that my daughter was in the 2nd centile and she will just be short.

She still seems to be on the second centile so she is staying on that line but my major worry is that I have three older daughter who started showing signs puberty at around 10 and by 12 they were pretty much adult height and didn’t grow much after that. If she has only a couple of years growth left she’s going to be absolutely tiny.

Has anyone else had one children differ so much from the others?
Is second centile a cause for concern?

Should I go back to my gp? Or just accept she’s short!

I would go back to the GP, particularly if she wasn't always tracking the 2nd centile (if her rate of growth dropped off). Yes some people are just short - but you would want to work out whether there is an underlying reason, considering the relative height of your other kids.

The Child Growth Foundation has useful information regarding growth conditions & there's a facebook group with the same name you may find useful.

Hmmm, the parental centiles cross at about the 50th, so would expect your DD to be between the 9th and the 91st (WHO charts from RCPCH website). So probably worth going back to the GP. Just worth bearing in mind that if she's diddy, she may well go into puberty later than your other dds, so hopefully will have a longer growing time...hopefully.

At only 9 she could still be growing for a long time yet; I was till about 16/17. I didn't start my periods till 16 and was always very small. Ended up about 5'3"

It's worth ruling out any malabsorption issues eg coeliac (must keep eating gluten for test) or hypothyroidism which is children can cause slow growth, late development rather than the stereotype of being overweight.

I actually developed hypothyroidism at 20 and looking back wonder if there was a slight issue earlier as I was tiny and always constipated growing up.

Some children are also slow growers and late develop, their bones keep growing as a result so ending up the same height as everyone else.

Periods are often related to weight gain so if she's lighter (ie on second centile for weight as well as height) she may start periods later but keep growing as a result.

My mum had this issue with me. I was 4ft 11in in year 6, younger sisters much taller. Doctors told my mum that they could give me "hormone injections" to bring on my growth spurt but I'd never be a tall woman. Declined the injections and I only ever grew to be exactly 5ft tall. Puberty was within the normal timeframe. My DD is 9 and only a few inches shorter than me. I guess some of us are just meant to be teeny. Good things come in small packages and all that! I love being short, it hasn't impacted me negatively at all and I'm in my 30s now.