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Short 2.5 year old please help

11 replies

Anotherworriedmummy3 · 01/04/2026 23:18

my daughter is 30 months and 84.5cm. She’s always been short but I’m honestly worrying now. Can anyone reassure me this can be normal 😭

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ChickenAndCustard · 01/04/2026 23:21

Have you plotted her height on the chart in the back of her red book? It does seem very petite but there are petite people in the world - nothing wrong with that! How tall are you/ her dad? Has the GP/ HV expressed any concerns?

user2848502016 · 01/04/2026 23:27

So that’s about 9th centile which is obviously on the short side, but not a huge concern either if she’s growing.
How has her growth been up to now? Was she a small baby? Are you and her Dad short? Does she eat well?
If she’s been growing steadily and eating well but just shorter than average you don’t need to worry too much, maybe she will catch up or maybe she will be a shorter than average adult.
If her growth has slowed down or she’s dropped several centiles since birth you should talk to your Health Visitor or GP, probably nothing to worry about but worth getting checked to be on the safe side.

Anotherworriedmummy3 · 01/04/2026 23:30

ChickenAndCustard · 01/04/2026 23:21

Have you plotted her height on the chart in the back of her red book? It does seem very petite but there are petite people in the world - nothing wrong with that! How tall are you/ her dad? Has the GP/ HV expressed any concerns?

She was 25th and slowly dropped: she was actually discharged from her allergy consultant last week and I’ve only realised tonight how much she’s dropped. I feel like I’ve failed her 😭

OP posts:
Tulipvase · 01/04/2026 23:33

I don’t really know but based on percentile charts, 9th percentile at age 18 is approx 155cm. Pretty sure my 20 year old is less than that.

But I appreciate your concern if she is dropping percentiles. Perhaps mention it at your next GP appointment/vaccination

Sbmpp · 02/04/2026 01:37

All three of my daughters were below the third percentile and were sent to the endocrinologist where the whole family was prodded and poked and so on. My dh was 5’10”’ I was 5’ and we’ just a small family. The girls were growing, just slowly and steadily. They are now 144.78cm, 157.48cm, & 152.4cm (I needed a calculator 😝). Just wanted to say they were fine. Also idk if there’s any truth to it but supposedly if you double your child’s height at age 2 you will get an estimate of their adult height 🤷🏻‍♀️. I think this worked out with my youngest daughter but don’t remember the others.

Superscientist · 02/04/2026 19:02

My daughter was 25th for length at 15m but when we saw her paediatrician for her next check up at 24 months she had dropped to the 1st percentile for height.

They can change percentile a little bit as you move from length to height, in part because of how unreliable length measurements are - my daughter apparently shrunk 4 cm between 15 and 16 months! They just wrote that off the second one as being a dodgy reading as she wasn't cooperating with the measurements.

She was in 9-12 month clothes for over a year! She was checked a few extra times over the following 4 months incase she was still dropping but she went on to continue following the 1st percentile. She was 20 months before she ate enough to maintain her weight without also needing formula so may this contributed to her not growing upwards as quickly. She is now 5.5 and following the 2nd percentile nicely but since starting school 18 months ago she her weight gain has dropped significantly. She only gained 200g between July and January and she has now dropped two percentiles in 18 months.

She has multiple food allergies and severe silent reflux which is almost certainly contributing to this. She is also not a great eater. Her paediatrician did a test for coeliacs when she was little, I can't remember when, and around the age of 3 he did a stool test looking for malabsorption and any inflammatory markers. She has mildly but not significantly elevated inflammation markers and no signs of malabsorption.

We are at the dietician later this month and have another follow up with the paediatrician in 4 months to keep monitoring her weight.

I'm 5ft2, my dad is 5ft5 and his sister 4ft11 so we definitely have short genes in the family. That said it was reassuring to have that extra monitoring when it was discovered. It might be worth sending an email to the paediatrician asking for advice. They can sometimes only look at the last two measurements especially when you have switched to a new chart. For your own peace of mind it might be helpful to get your HV to recheck weight and height in 2-3 months to see what the trend is

We had this twice - the first time he compared It to the dodgy reading that hadn't been removed. I got her HV to check her height and weight 2m later and spoke to him about it at her follow up 2m after that.
This time he compared it just to the last measurement where it looked like she had just gone from just over to just under the 25th percentile. When he went back to the previous age chart you could see how she has actually gone from the 35th percentile to the 6th percentile. He opened with "good weight gain" to which I replied is it? His notes of the appointment list the drop and that it needs monitoring! It is perfectly ok to question them! I have copies of the chart on my phone now and a note page with her previous figures so I know where she was and where she is before I go into the appointment.

From an impact pov it's not held her back too much. We had to delay potty training by 3 months as I couldn't find any 12-18 month knickers so had to wait until she fitted into 18m ones to start potty training. It was then a faff that outfits in 18-24 m came with poppers vests still so she couldn't go to the toilet independently in them. She was in 18-24 month clothes until 4. I struggled to find a school uniform to fit her... Compounded by her being an August born - M and S and Sainsbury's do school uniforms in 2-3y. She's not the only child in her class that is this height and one of her best friends is older but only 0.4th percentile and they grow at about the same rate which is really nice.

Superscientist · 02/04/2026 19:07

I've just found her comparable height. She was 81cm at 27 months x

IceyBisBack · 02/04/2026 21:25

My boy has never been on the charts. It was only when he didn't go through puberty at 14 they started growth hormone

Sonolanona · 03/04/2026 00:48

My grandson is 5 this month and very short. 1st -2nd centile short, and hasn't quite hit 100cm yet. He's growing, but very slowly and is noticing that his class mates are all a lot taller.
My daughter is going to ask for a referral to endocrinology in case he needs growth hormones, as it will be hard if he's a really really short man,but otherwise he's healthy. It's a pain for school uniform tho!

My DD was 9th centile for height all the way, and she's 5 ft 2 as an adult so not abnormally short.

Plotment · 03/04/2026 01:01

Have you checked the charts?

My son is 4 this month - so 47 months and 94cm. He’s short yes and many boys a head taller but he’s not far off some of the girls. Don’t worry OP. Unless you are going to start giving hormones; which I personally don’t like the sound of - then I wouldn’t worry about it. It is what it is.

Zapx · 03/04/2026 07:36

Have a look at coeliac. My children pretty much fell off the bottom of the growth chart altogether (0.4%) and now gluten free have made it back up to 25th percentile

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