If you have an older teenager, did they reach the height on their line in the red book?!

[bigTillyMint]

Inspired by another thread, I am just wondering how accurate those lines are at predicting adult height.

DS started on the 9th percentile at birth, but was on the 50th aged 1. He is now nearly 13 and is on the 98th. Even if he stops growing completely, he will be on the 50th as an adult.

DD also started on the 9th percentile, but was on the 25th aged 1 and at 14 1/2 is between the 25th and 50th. She hasn't grown at all in a year, but may grow a bit more.

So are those lines accurate?

I don't think we had a little red book . Both DS1 and DS2 were 95th centile for length at birth and weight during their first year.
DS1 is 18 and was fully grown at 13 (6'2"). Weighs 10 stone wet through.
DS2 is 15 and 6'2" now but still growing.... Weighs 11 stone.

So in spite of similar patterns in the first year they have grown differently in their teens.

Nowhere near. DD1 was on the 75th centile for height throughout toddlerhood until well through school age. She's 18 now and 5'4". Her adult height at age 2 was predicted as 5'8"!
DD2 was on the 95th centile for length when she was born but slipped down the centiles very rapidly, so rapidly I was threatened with SS for failure to thrive (hospital later diagnosed reflux after months of me complaining at how sicky she was and them ignoring me - too busy threatening )
She's 14 and a half now and still only just over 5 foot. I can't see her making more than 5'3" at the very most.
I do actually feed them!

dd1 was always very tall for her age, until she hit 5'5 and stopped. Ds was always the short one, but is now well over six feet (the height guesstimator put his adult height at 5'9.)

I have red books in the house somewhere, I've barely glanced at them in years.

Dd hit 5 foot 7 at 11 and never grew again. She is an adult now.

DS (20) stuck with the 70th centile pretty much all the way through, though he's kept on growing a bit longer and is now probably a bit over 6ft, where the line suggested 5ft 11.

I think ds was 25% when he was born and at 18 he is 6ft. He climbed the centiles in his first year to 75th then 90th in his 2nd year.
Dd

Dd was alway between 25th and 50th until she was 11 and hit puberty where she went to 75th and at 16 is 5'6

I was one of the tallest at the end of primary school. I've grown about an inch since.

Ds was guesstimated to be 6'1 at full adult height till they changed the charts and it went up to 6'2". He's 13 and almost 5'11" and looking on course for 6'2"-6'3" if the charts are right (99th centile)

DS1 is nearly 14 and still waiting for his growth spurt. This thread has inspired me to dig out his read book and measure him on his birthday if he'll let me.

Dd1 was supposed to get to 5 ft 9.

She's 5 ft 4

DD2 was supposed to be 5 ft 3

She's 5 ft 6

Interesting! Ds is meant to be 6ft1. He is six and 4ft 3 so he will probably hit it he went above the red line in his book at 6 months old and has been above it ever since.

DS1 was 25th centile..and has stopped at 5 ft 9 like dh.
DS2 was always 98th centile and was 6 ft at 13..but has also stopped
DD1 was 75th centile, and has continued to slowly grow til she was 20 and is now a 5 ft 10 supermodel shaped 22 yr old.. lucky thing!
DD2 was 9th centile and stopped growing at 12.. she is 5 ft 2 and very cross about it (they are aged 16-22)

So mine have stuck roughly with their predictions!

DS was meant to be 5 ft 11, but at age 15 was 6 ft 2 and hasn't stopped yet
I always remember the midwives admiring his large fists in hospital and saying the size of his fists, he was a 9.6LB baby, meant he would be tall, a bit like puppy and their paws I guess

This is so interesting - as I thought, the books are a load of crap

my son was born on the 40th centile but was very ill at 18 months and lost so much weight that he was only 16 pounds when he was 2. They told us at the hospital that he had lost the growth in his long bones and would be lucky if he was 5ft 4 as an adult.

He was very small until he was 15 and now at 18 he is 6ft, and still growing.

The growth centiles predictions are usually correct but the problem is the accuracy of the measurements. Babies and toddlers are difficult to measure accurately unless by a trained professional. I work with nurses who measure and weigh dcs all day long and the measurements are very accurate. What I'm looking for in the red books is a trend and most dcs are weighed every 6 months. All 3 of my are on 50-75th centiles and have been so since they were newborns so I assume they will follow this into their teens

hhmm well will report back in 14-16 years. Per the red books, DS1 will be 6'1'', and DS2 will be 5'4''.....So glad to hear there are a number who have bucked the graph trends

elmer that's great

Mumzy, the DC were measured by health professionals! They were small at birth (weight as well) which was surprising as I am 5'8" so it will be interesting to see their full growth patterns.

DD would have been 7 ft 4, glad to say she is 5 ft 6 .

syd, I didn't know the lines went to that height!

I've just dug out my children's red books and the calculations are very crude, just based on parental height. ds came out as 6'4" and dd as 5'11".
At 13 and 14 respectively dd is 5'9" and ds is 5'11". Later predictions (adding the child's height from 2 years) have come out consistently at around about 6'1" adult height for both of them, give or take a couple of inches either way. I think that will be fairly accurate, dd will probably grow another couple of inches and ds a few more.

They were both a bit early and relatively small long babies and both of them were fairly tall by a year.

I've not done centiles for either of them since they were in infant school, but have just checked and it looks like they are both in the same centile now as for their two year check.

syldexic, are you sure about that? The calculations in the red book are based on mid-parental height, or at least the ones in mine are (children born in 1999 and 2000, books a bit older than that).

My two have tracked neatly along the same centile for their weights - DS between 75 and 90, and DD along 75th. Not sure about their heights though. I think DS is around 50th and DD around 25 but they've not been measured often enough for me to remember.

DB was one of the shortest ones at school and suddenly shot up in his late teens. He's about 6ft now.

DD (18) is about 5'9/10" depending on slouching. 2nd centile until 2, then hit 95th at 4 and has just stopped growing.