small ds .....

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My ds is 13 and very - noticably small for his age.his blazer size has not needed to be changed for two years nor shoes .He says "i dont grow" but otherwise said little.
My dh wants him to be seem by paediatrician to check if needs grow hormone - which i feel v unsure about. DH feels that he maysomehow miss chance to grow if dont give this at certian optimum time.DS has always been on second percentile - but his frends are at leas t size 6 shoe or a lot more and he s size 4.He has no signs of puberty as yet.
Has anyone had similar experience or any advice please?

No experience, my ds is the opposite, but a friend of his was very short all his life until he went to a paediatrician and was put onto some sort of specialist hormone treatment (sorry don't know the details). He's still quite short but within the normal range now, I'd say.

I wouldn't hang aroud if I were you, boys really care about stuff like their height and although he may not come out and say anything to you I bet he is concerned.

I'd talk to him and ask if he'd like to go to see the GP to see what can be done.

Well my brother was very small at that age,and so was I,he started a new school at 14 and they all thought he was a first year.He is six foot now-he just grew at 15/16 and I was the same,five stone at 14,grew six inches in a year at 15/16 and am now 5'8". I started my periods late,everything.But my Mum had been the same so I wasn't worried about it.You could get him checked out to reassure you,that is sensible,but he is probably just a later developer.I once gave a talk to a class of 14 year olds and some of the boys looked about 10 with high squeaky voices and a couple at the back were like grown men with facial hair and deep voices and massive shoulders.The difference was so huge it was highly entertaining.Less noticable amongst girls!.

My DH was smallest boy in school at age 11, still smallest boy the following year - eventually started growing aged 14/15 & is now 5'10". I had a cousin who was similar - v small until about 14/15, now 6ft.
Does you DH remember when he started his puberty growth spurt? (Or you may have to ask your MIL)- you may just be a late-developing family.

However, if you are concerned, it may be worth taking DS to your GP is he wants to go, so they can check if his hormones are in the normal range.

My DS is nearly 16 and has grown over 6 inches in the last year.It really does take off very quickly for some lads when you think its never going to happen.
He has caught up with all the really tall boys who grew at 13/14.

ds was small - which was noticable becuase his twin sister towered over him - literally head and shoulders.

he was worried about it - but we told him that it would happen eventually.

we started measuring him on the door post, literally carving a nick every month.

some months were literally astounding, aged around 14.

should have added that he is now taller than his (tall) sister.

but would take to docs just to see what they say.

do you have a history of shorties in your family?

ds2 is 14 and size 4. He generally wears 11-12 year old clothes but when we went shopping last month I found Gap sizes were 9-10!

I am not overly worried, he is very skinny.

Do you have any growth charts similar to the ones in the health books they have as babies? You could track him month by month and then would have evidence of the slow rate should you want to see a specialist.

I would avoid growth hormone as you are on teh cusp of puberty when a growth spurt could be just around the corner

He is still young - there is a photo of my DH next to his mum at 14 and he is smaller than her (she is 4'11"!). DH is 5'8" now after finally growing at 16, he isn't massively tall but is in the normal range for a man. DS is 13 and has hit puberty this year, 6 inches of growth and his voice has broken but some of his friends are still small.

Same here - DS1 is 13 (14 in jan) and 147cm tall. Shoe size 3. No underarm hair, doesn't even smell yet. He looks like a younger brother when with his friends.

When he started year 7 he was 135cm and age 9 clothes. We have been keeping an eye and he IS growing. WE took him to the GP who said that basically as he is actually growing, all is fine, he is just a late developer.

He is also very immature for his age so it does make sense. He does get a bit of stick for it, but I just tell him that it doesn't matter what you look like, people will always find something to tease you for.
To reassure DS we measure him every couple of months and plot it on a height chart - you can download the ones they use in the baby books etc and he can see that he is definitely growing.

I have also noticed that the difference between him and his friends is less than it was in year 7 as they all seem to be slowing down.

If he's consistently going up a centile, even the 2% one, then there probably isn't anything wrong. But in a sense your DH is right - some hormone treatments have to be given before puberty to get the benefit of them - once you reach puberty the lengthening of your leg and arm bones slows then stops, and the hormones wouldn'e have the same effect any more.

So, it might be worth a visit to the doc to get it checked out, just in case.

ds1 is on the small side of average for his age (13) - he's growing very slowly, but has shown no signs of puberty yet (other than mood swings )

he has his party at the weekend and 2 of his friends have had a big growth spurt since starting secondary and tower over the others - voices have broken, bumfluff on upper lip, faces look 'different' - 2 are still tiny (one of his friends is actually smaller than my (admittedly very tall) 7 year old) - but the rest of them - the majority - were all somewhere around ds's height/build/state of puberty (nothing obvious)

ds has been getting worried that he hasn't grown as size is very important in his particular sport - in the end I asked the school doctor as he was getting so angsty about it - the dr said as long as he was growing a bit that was fine, and that the normal age range for puberty and growth spurts is anything from 11ish to 16+. He also said the most accurate predictor for adult height was parental height - so if you and your dh are average, chances are your ds is going to be average too

Take him to the doctor.

This was DS1 at the age of 12. He was very depressed about being so short and throughout his school career (now 16) is constantly being told off by teachers for being in wrong room/playground, etc because he looks as though he should be with the much younger children. He plays guitar in a band and his bandmates were once told off by a concerned woman (old biddy) for keeping such a young child up so late and for encouraging him to play rock music. They laughed like drains. DS1 not so amused.

So we took him to the doctor and they referred him to the growth clinic at the hospital.

What the growth clinic did was marvellous - they took his concerns seriously. His bones were X-rayed and they told him that he wasn't malformed or anything worrying, but that his bones were those of a younger boy and therefore there was no reason to suppose that he would not eventually grow.

They told us that they like to see boys with his growth problems because of the psychological benefit that taking their worries seriously can give them.

DS1 is still short, but because he has check-ups at the growth clinic he can see that he is on track and that he will eventually get there. He has a positive approach to the fact that he can still get cheap clothes, etc, because of his height. And he followed the hospital's advice about not putting his life on hold until he is taller (which he admitted he had been doing). OK, that lead to the first girlfriend and associated issues, but on the whole this advice was good!