Ask Dr Hilary Jones your questions about children’s growth

[JustineBMumsnet]

This Q&A is now closed. You can find answers here.

Children’s growth can be an indicator of health and wellbeing, but it can be confusing to understand and difficult to keep on top of - particularly once your child is no longer a baby or toddler. With this in mind, More Than Height would like to help answer any questions you have about your child’s growth, and have Dr Hilary Jones on hand to help.

Here’s what Dr Hilary Jones has to say: “Regularly measuring your child’s height and weight should be a routine throughout their childhood. It’s a useful way to keep on top of their physical development and if you suspect anything is wrong, for example they’re wearing out their clothes before they’re outgrowing them, then it’s a signal to speak to your doctor to get everything checked out.

For more advice on childhood growth and tips on how to accurately measure your child visit www.morethanheight.com.”

More information on Dr Hilary Jones can be found below:
“Dr Hilary Jones, GP, is a familiar face on TV having served as ITV’s Health Editor on TV a.m., Daybreak and Good Morning Britain since 1989. During his career he has worked as a medical officer on the most isolated island in the world, Tristan da Cunha, and accompanied flying doctor services in the Australian outback and in Lesotho.

He has covered breaking medical news from around the world and been involved many public health campaigns. He loyally supports a host of health charities including London Air Ambulance, Stroke Association, British Heart Foundation, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Diabetes UK.

He continues to work part time as a GP and remains a passionate advocate of medical education for all.“

So, whether you’d like to know how often you should measure your child’s growth or you have questions on what you should look out for to see if anything could be wrong, post your questions for Dr Hilary Jones below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £150 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).

We’ll be selecting questions to be answered by by Dr Hilary Jones and posting responses ASAP.

We’ll also be hosting a live Q&A on Facebook ahead of Children’s Growth Awareness Day. Join the live Q&A session with Dr Hilary and The Inspirational Edit’s Angela Milnes, a mum of one and award-winning parenting blogger on 17 September.

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

MN thinks that “overtall” is a thing - I haven’t found any evidence of this, So is it true? My 31-weeker prem DS grew 12cm in 3 months when I started weaning him, is this bad? (His Dad is 6’5”, all men in my side are over 6’ so I thought maybe he was finding his “real” centile?)

My dd is nearly 14 and 5.4 inches but only on the 7th Percentile for weight

She still has not started her periods. Should I take her to the docs or will she start when she gets to a certain weight?

My 13 year-old son used to be the tallest in his class all through primary school. However, he has barely grown for the last year and half... which corresponds to him being pretty ill during that time (he lost a lot of weight - and he wasn't overweight to start with - to the point that we thought he wouldn't survive). He's loads better now and has put on weight, but still hasn't grown any taller. In fact, he's now the shortest in his year group.

At what point should we be concerned?

When do children stop growing?
Dd1 is hoping for a last growth spurt but at 17 is this likely? Dd2 is 15 and taller.

I'd second a few queries already posted really.

My year 2 child is the smallest out of his year group and has been smallest child since reception. Feet sizing pretty much same as his reasonably tall sibling at the same ages though. He really conscious of being the smallest and although he's perfectly proportioned (as in, both clothing arms and legs are pretty much equally too long for his age/size) we often wonder if being born 5 weeks early or having to use a brown inhaler most of his life all winter may have had an impact. Mother is 5 ft 3 and father is 6ft 2.

Do we need to raise this at any point?

Is it true that if you measure your child's height at 2 years old and double it that is a good indicator of what height they will end up at?

How much does the amount of sleep a child gets affect growth?

My son is 11, he was born at 28 weeks.
Although educationally he is fine and keeping up with his peers, he seems to lack the strength and build of others. He is incredibly skinny, and has quite short legs too.
Is it possible that his use of steroids due to COPD has stopped him growing at the same rate as his classmates?

Huge difference in me and DH height. He is around 6ft5 and I am around 5ft1. I always assumed that we would end up with average sized DC. However DD and DS both on 25 centile (ages 2 and 6)Is it likely that kids will take after one or other parent in terms of height rather than meeting in the middle?

My DC can outwear clothes, but I'm not tall myself and just thought they were going to be a similar size to me. They aren't ridiculously small but they are all the smallest in their classes at school despite all 3 eating more than most adults should I be getting this/them checked out and if so what do I say?

Ds (5) is a very picky eater despite my best efforts, generally eating a lot of carbs, dairy, and fruits, but limited protein (mainly humous, cheese and sausages). He also has a multi vitamin. He is small for his age - could this be diet related? (though I'm only 5' 2" and dp is 5' 10).

Same worry as another parent - about the potential impacts of steroid inhalers on growth. My son has severe asthma /allergies and I worry about the impact on steroid inhalers but obviously keeping his asthma under control has to be the priority

My son is 15 and 6ft 2 with size 11 feet. He hasn't grown in a year, and prior to that grew continuously, as in inches and a shoe size every six to twelve months. Does that mean he has stopped growing now?

I bloody well hope so because I'm fed up of perpetual clothes buying!

My DS is 15 in November and small for his age (5ft 1), he is also incredibly slim (5.6 stone), not even on the chart for weight. I am 5 ft 5 and my DH is 5 ft 10. My DH is also incredibly slim. Otherwise my DS is fit & healthy but doesn’t eat as much as his 11 year old sister. He hasn’t hit puberty yet. Should I take him to the Drs to get him checked over?

My Dd age 6 would fit into a age 3 waist size although is very tall and needs the leg length of age 8. She eats reasonably well and is very rarely ill. Should I be concerned?

At what age is it necessary to ensure that children start formally exercising as part of their routine, rather than just running around playing? When would you start encouraging them to go for a run, or to a gym, for example?

I'd really love your advice.

My 17 year old son is 5'4" - partly due to congenital scoliosis but even if that weren't a factor, he'd probably only be 5'6". We've had conflicting advice. We were advised not to use growth hormones in his teens as they might exacerbate the scoliosis. But now we're told it's too late to consider growth hormones and we should have considered them earlier. He is extremely self conscious of his height and it hugely impacts his social confidence as all his friends are around 6 ft mark.

I grew two inches at uni and so did my husband's father, so there is late growth on both sides of the family but I don't want him to assume that will happen.

What if anything can we do to help him grow? He's worried he'll never find a girlfriend and judging by the caustic remarks about short men you hear all the time, I am too.

My eldest son was born prematurely at 31weeks and 3 days. He's somewhere between the 9th and 25th on the height and weight percentile. Is he likely to continue following this line or might it change due to genetics? My husband is 6ft 1. My youngest son born full term is around the 75th percentile for both height and weight. So eve thought there's three years between the one us 6.5 and the other 3.5 there's not much between them in size!

My 13 year old DS has only lost 10 baby teeth. Does this correlate with later puberty at all? I am 5ft 5 and his father is 6ft 3, but DS is nearer the 25th centile for height than the 50th and in mostly age 12 clothes, is he likely to catch up when he hits the puberty growth spurt?

DS also outwears summer clothes before he outgrows them, or does it only apply to outgrowing clothes by height? I find that most clothes are too big on the waist for the length, so he can wear summer clothes for years. One t-shirt is four years old, and I've recycled others that have been outworn and replaced, otherwise he'd never get to have new ones!

Mu DD is nearly 13 and is 137cm tall, averaging about 2cm a year for the past 3-4 years. When she was around 2 we took her to child health clinic where they monitored her for a couple of year (no tests) and at that point she remained static for 12 month, then the next year grew 1 cm. The General consensus is that as she is growing then there's no worry. However, while she is very bright, she is also very immature. Should I be worried and asking fir more answers?

My 5 wk old is struggling with his tummy - constantly straining, pulling his legs up and grunting - could Colief help him?

Are feet pains part of growing pains? My 11 year old son had terrible pains and needed insoles for a while. Just wondered what caused them and if it's connected to growing.

My daughter has always been just below the 25th centile. She is 3 1/2 but still needs 18-24months clothes for her waist, anything bigger falls down. Should I be worried? Is there anything I can include in her diet to make her put on weight? I feel that everything we put in she burns off!

My youngest starts school soon, they are about 3 and a half stone and 108cm tall. I can't find their red book, so I was wondering, is that about right or too much/too little? I don't want to get a letter saying they are overweight!

No growth in over a year. No increase in height, or weight. Was already small for age. Has slipped down to 0.4 on the centiles. 7 years old. Should this be cause for concern?

(Mum and dad both average height, older sister tall and slim for age)