Can I predict my son's future height?

[valentine]

My DS is 10 months old and between the 2nd and 9th percentile for height. Does this mean he will always be in this percentile (and therefore according to the charts, 5ft5 when he is 20) or can babies/kids jump between percentiles? I am 5ft4 and my husband is 5ft8 so i would have thought my son would be a bit taller (not that we are giants!). Any views on this?!

I did it for me too, moo - I should have been 5'9, but did you notice the disclaimer? Something like

in other words, +/- 4", or an 8" variation...not a very reliable predictor then!

Mind you, as I said before, my DDs did end up almost exactly the same height, despite being on 10th and 75th centiles respectively throughout life and completely different body shapes and proportions!

An exact science it ain't.

Much easier with dogs...

My health visitor, who was utterly brilliant, told me that boys are programmed to be at least 2 inches taller than their mothers, assuming that they are healthy and don't have external factors to stunt their growth. Have to say that I've never heard that anywhere else though.

My brother is 14 inches taller than our Mum - bless her, she's 5 foot nothing (reckons it's because she was born in the war and everything was rationed...)

Marthamoo - I did it for my height based on parents too and I should be 5 feet 2.5 - I'm 5'6"!! My brothers should be 5'7" and they are 6'!

A BIG pinch of salt!!

My ds's should be 6'1"

might i suggest that when taking your parents height now, have you taken into account shrinkage? i'm serious... gravity causes us to compress as we get older... havent you noticed?

but i think its a diet thing also. as a nation, we are taller than our parents were and certainly our grandparents, generally speaking.

DS1 was on the 3rd centile at 2 & briefly dropped below it. We were warned he would only be 5ft 2. He is now 17 & towers above me (I'm 5ft 2-and-a-bit).

if you go on the website for the tall club of britain they have a predictor which is based on child's present height and age.Ds is going to be 6'5" which is easy to imagine as he is so tall!!

That child in time programme said at 2 years old if you have a boy you multiply the height in inches by 1.37 then add 22.7. With girls its multiply by 1.17 and add 25.

I wrote this down but am not sure if it makes sense!

My mum used to say that for a girl you should double her height at 1¾ and for a boy at 2¼. Have no idea where she got that from - probably made it up. Anyway I was a grave disappointment as I turned out about 8" too tall!