DS 11.5 height concern

[greenbird123]

Ds has always been between 9th and max 25 centile. A few times a little above.

He's gone into y7 (middle school) and come home feeling very small as so many have spurted over the summer. He probably noticed it more as he's with the y8s too. He's quite despondent.

We did measure him last year and it does seem as if he's only grown 3.5 cm in a year, though his feet have grown. He's just above the 9th centile.

We do need to get his asthma checked as I don't feel it's been that great this year as he's had so many coughs, but he's definitely not an extreme case in that regard. No hospital etc.

He doesn't want to see the gp though I may have a chat myself to just log it, and obviously get an asthma review.

Any other advice?

I was a very late developer and always v small. Now 5.2 and I was still growing quite late. We've reassured him as much as possible. I did develop hypothyroidism in late teens which may have affected my growth and puberty but he's not showing any signs of that.

How tall is dad? If you are 5,2 and dads only small then DS is never going to be tall….but it’s early days….plenty of time yet to grow ….keep an eye on it….and ask for endocrine referral if growth slows right down

He's 5.10

It's more that we think his height has slowed. According to charts it's generally 6 cm a year give or take. It's been 3.5 max in a year.

I'm thinking we monitor for 6 months - he could be due a spurt? And if not see Gp

How tall is he? My ds is 5 foot. He's 12 in January.

There's a huge variation in boys at this age - I see it at my kids' school, some of the 12yos have hit puberty and are towering over the teachers, and others still look like little boys. Certainly worth keeping an eye on, but there's nothing too alarming in what you've described.

Agree with PP. The variation is so big in boys. My 13 Yr old is 6ft. Some of his friends are barely 5ft. There is no logic to it. But I'm sure it evens out somewhat.

Does your son use a brown preventer inhaler regularly? One of the side effects of these is slowing down growth. It is a very low risk, but if you're worried you should see his GP.

www.nhs.uk/medicines/beclometasone-inhalers/side-effects-of-beclometasone-inhalers/

Please don't take this the wrong way, but someone has to be at the 9th centile for height. And one boy in 11 is shorter than him. I would concentrate on all the ways he's above average. 😀

That's one if the things I'm concerned about. It's been one cough after another this year for him so he has often upped it.

My nearly 13 year old son going into year 8 does not seem to have grown much at all in the last 18 months. We are waiting for a huge growth spurt . I think puberty may be about to hit .
His cousin was also very little at the same age and at 17 is 6 ft 3 and broad as an ox!

Fully acccept that. It's the rate of growth we are questioning as well as him now.

He has always had a small group if friends who are a similar height to him. He says even they seem
To be taller

He had a terrible chest infection in March and for the first time had to have oral steroids too.

But I'm also aware that not treating asthma can stunt growth

There are lots of mn threads about this. Have a search. Chat to gp. Referral can be made, to see specialist. Tests done. But, There is little that can be done, mostly, although many get fobbed off. But there are options, but the side effects need you be weighed up, ie the downsides of eg taking a tablet. But at least talk to someone, give it some thought.

Yes I need to take this to the gp.

At the least look at asthma meds. It's possible that a dual one might be better like mine but I don't know how old kids need to be for that.

He's been v well controlled on that, sometimes not really needing it in the summer, till this last year.

All the brand new Y7 boys I see at the bus stop on my way to work are tiny! The girls always seem so much taller. Then again I was 5’0 in Y6 and haven’t grown at all since. My Dad used to mark our heights against the wall as we grew, and I’m still at my 2005 marker. My younger brother is 24 and he’s only 5’5.

You say he’s small but you don’t mention his actual height?

I hope to reassure you with this-
I’m a paediatric dietitian, and we do a lot of work on growth monitoring. You’ve said he hasn’t grown much in the last year but that he is now on the 9th, having previously been 9th-25th. Its great that you’ve noted this, and I would say to keep an eye on his height, measuring once a month for the next 3-6 months. We tend to become concerned when we see crossing of centile lines over a longer period of time. I would also make an appt with the GP so that your concerns are noted in DS’s records, and his height is recorded too, especially if there is a suspicion that a medical condition or medication is involved in his slightly slowed growth.

In my experience, pre-pubescent and pubescent boys can experience a lag in vertical growth and then there is a bit of an acceleration. This may not be very comforting to your DS, however by going to the GP to register concerns and by keeping regular records a pattern can be identified and a plan of action put in place if needed.

In the meantime reassure your DS that all teens grow at different rates, and that some adolescent boys continue to grow taller into adulthood (early 20’s)!

All the best x

Hi @CrazyCatLady3000 thank you so
Much for your post, yes reassuring thanks.

I was posting in a rush yesterday, forgot to mention he was a IURG baby, 5.5 lb at 42 weeks . Which everyone reassured us about so much I didn't think there might be a link to late puberty. Though Google seems to think there can be?

It's also why we have a lot of measurements for him when little. I do think at one point he was on the 50th too though. So I'll have to go back and look properly.

The thing is that it's upsetting him a bit now.

Will do as you say and log it with the gp, especially given the brown inhaler has potential to be an issue

Height will be linked to puberty, if he’s not showing signs in other aspects then I’ sure he still has a way to go for growth

Hi I had similar concerns regarding my DS although in our case he comes from two much taller than average parents and has taller than average siblings.

We did as suggested above and had an initial chat with the GP who was unconcerned but his height was logged. GP took a watch and weight approach for 12 months and he didn’t grow, feet stayed the same size and he he didn’t put much weight on despite having an enormous appetite.

The outcome was he ended up being seen at hospital, had blood tests to rule out coeliac and thyroid problems and a bone scan. Our DS has delayed bone age of 12-18 months and extremely low ferritin which was a suprise as he has had no symptoms of this. We are a couple of years down the road now and he is growing. He’s grown 15 cm in the last year and puberty is kicking in. He still the smallest in his group of friends but we know now that he will continue growing when they will likely stop due to his delayed bone age. Puberty only really started for him age 14.

So in my experience I would absolutely recommend logging with the GP- our initial appointment was just a telephone call and DS wasn’t even present. Just worth getting in the system I think.

I’m 5f 3, my DH is 5ft 10 and my DS who is 16 is 5ft 6.

I’m not worried as I work with a lot of men who are the same height as my DS. He was very small starting secondary school so has grown a bit and I’m just glad he is taller than me. I’m sure he will grow some more though

People do have different bone ages, my daughter received a bone age hand scan for diff reasons and we know her bone age is two years younger which suggests she'll have a two year lag on height. My own partner grew 5 inches between 18 and 22 which suggests she got it from him, try and ask for a hand scan - perhaps privately? It's a 30 sec scan.

I remember the boys in yr 7 being shorter than the girls on the whole, it was a dew years later they all grew quite quickly. My brother was the smallest in his class for ages and then shot up to 6ft. Dh on the other hand grew to 5ft 10 by the time he was 12 and then just never grew after that. I don’t think it’s straightforward.

I would still talk to the GP if you are worried, you have records of his height. Just tell your DS it’s a quick chat just to check him out and see if theres anything going on.

Ok I got it wrong; height wise he was hovering between 25 and 50 from around 2, till end of baby book records. Weight was 9-25 and sometimes higher.

There's some other measurements here and there I need to check.

@Overhereoverthereover it's the slowed growth over what is actually the last 13 months we are concerned about.

I started worrying about ds2’s height around the same age. He’d always been 9th to 21st percentile and like your dad had only grown an inch or so in over a year and his friends had started to shoot up. He was still under 5’.
I decided to give it a few months but was seriously considering the gp.
He is 14 now and 5’5” and growing like a weed now and has suddenly start looking like a man. When you look at his peers there is such a huge variance in height and development so I wouldn’t worry yet.

He's probably just slowed down prior to puberty. 11/12 is such a weird age for height, some are tiny and some are huge. My own son was always one of the smallest, never seemed to grow much then all of a sudden has shot up a foot and grown 4 shoe sizes in a year. Now one of the tallest in the year by the end of year 7.