<p>My younger son, currently just turning 15, literally did not grow even one centimeter in 3 years. We were not really nervous beause we are both short people, me especially, until we unpacked the same clothes for the third year and they still fit him. Actually, he was starting to be quite anxious about his growth so I brought it up to his doctor, someone I work with, quite casually, expecting to hear the typical well, you are both pretty short, but instead he ordered an x-ray of his wrist and some blood work. The bone x-ray is a bit like reading the rings of a tree - it gives a skeletal age which can indicate whether growth is ■■■■■■■■ or age appropriate. If age appropriate, the growth is presumed to be limited due to genetics - there is no growth disorder. We learned, much to our surprise, that our son’s bone age was 10 when he was almost 14 - he really had stopped growing. He turned out to have a growth disorder and a thyroid disorder and he has taken testosterone shots as recommended by two pedi endocrinologists for 6 months and a daily thryoid pill. He has grown a total of 3 inches over 9 months and just measured in at 5’ 1" last week. As someone else has said - the treatments do not cause any additional growth benefits - just the growth that the child would most likely have on his own which is genetically determined. We are up for new tests this month and hope that his body is kicking in and we can discontinue the shots. Although it sounds as if your daughter is just having a natural lull, perhaps even slowing down her growth as expected, it’s not a bad idea to get some tests if you are concerned. Truly, we never expected to find a problem and felt we were just be typically cautious medical people. OTOH, I also think it’s really important to avoid transfering your concerns re: height to her, especially given her normal height range, and that was a concern of mine when we had to have so many tests done. My son really thought there was something wrong (translate different) about him, which made his really difficult at the time.</p>
<p>Heck, with all the naps I take, if sleep led to height, I’d be ten feet tall by now. :)</p>
<p>Calmom, I’ll share your anecdote with my niece. When we first moved here and we decided on this little catholic school for the younger kids, one issue I was considering was keeping one of them back a year for a variety of reasons. He is the one who is very small, always the shortest in the class and in an all boys’ environment, perhaps a bit of a disadvantage in the playground jungle. I shared these concerns with the school since it would have been just as easy for him to repeat a year of kindergardent during this transition especially since he had been in a nongraded Montessori school. Well, the headmaster glanced at the boys’ entrance exams and psychological profiles as assessed by the resident psychologist and proclaimed the boy fit and ready for 1st grade. As he stood to his full 5’4" (maybe), he looked me right in the eye and said, “Noone gets held back in this school because of size.”</p>
<p>And Carolyn, I too should be ten feet tall by now–I love my sleep.</p>
<p>I swear I grew an inch in my early 50s. I had gone through life thinking I was 5’4, based on doctors’ measurements and my own, thereby qualifying me to shop in the petite dept., etc. As the kids went into their growth spurts, we got into marking heights on the doorway of the kitchen, and the girls, in a competition to outpace mom, asked to measure me. To my surprise it came out 5’5, but I didn’t believe it until I went to my physical this spring and indeed that was right! Can’t explain it. But, I am still the shortest one in my family, and will probably start shrinking any day now.</p>
<p>None of the measures/rules of thumb above have exactly applied to our family, it seems, but the kids are all settling in somewhere between dad at 6’3 and me.</p>
<p>Our family too. My husband’s cousins–there are 6 of them in the one family also fall between that spread with the exception of one short girl who is shorter than the mom. My husband’s family with 5 siblings with big parents, have the males all within an inch of the father and the female an inch taller than the mother. My family has all of the females taller than a short mom, shorter than a very short dad. The males are all taller than the dad. My three little guys are not following a tall curve even though both parents are tall. I guess humans are not like those little bean plants that Mendel grew and was able to chart. Although methinnks the good monk was a bit lax on short/tall definitions as he made his categories.</p>
<p>Fellow napper here. I told my husband that I am a very happy person because very single day of my life I get to do my favorite thing… go to sleep!</p>
<p>I had a much more boy-like growth spurt. When I entered HS I was 4’11. By junior year, I was 5’7". I stopped at 5’8.5" – when I was about 20.</p>
<p>My D is definitely still growing. She was 5’6" or so when she got her period at 14 and is now (at almost 18) about 5’9" and still going strong. (In fact if she would stand up straight she might even be taller; I am just guaging it by comparing her height to mine.) </p>
<p>She sleeps like crazy (9:30 or 10 pm till 7am weekdays, sleeps till 10 or 11 on weekends.) If she could sleep as little as most teens she’d probably have a 4.0, LOL!!</p>
<p>SBmom - Wow, from 4-11 to 5-7!!! Wow.</p>
<p>I remember eating about 7 times a day; I could not get enough to eat. Also my legs would ache.</p>
<p>When I leveled off senior year up I kept right on eating and in the blink of an eye I went from scrawny to FAT.</p>
<p>My S went from 5’ 4" to 6’ in 18 months. We went through 3 full shoe sizes. It was crazy. D was the shortest of all her friends as a freshman, but as a senior she is tallest. She went from 5’1" to 5’8" in 30 months.</p>
<p>A former co-worker of mine mentioned that her husband was the shortest guy in his class until he turned 16 and then he grew to be 6’ 7"! We knew one guy who was the tallest in his family (about 6’4"). He said it was hard to be tall because you literally stand out in the crowd. 
The first photos of my H with my relatives had his head almost cut out of the picture because he’s almost 6’1" and I’m 5’ with most of my relatives under 5’7"! Over the years they’ve gotten much better at including his head in the frame plus he tends to either sit or crouch just to make sure.</p>
<p>He said it was hard to be tall because you literally stand out in the crowd. >></p>
<p>I would agree that this has been son for my son all of his life. When he was in elementary school he was always “heads and shoulders” above the other kids — and it seemed to me that he was always the one in a group of troublemakers that teachers spotted and called out first. He was thrilled when he met someone on the freshman football team this year who is 6’5" - a whole inch taller than son’s current height! He said it’s the first time in his life he has a friend who’s taller than him and it feel great to finally “look up” at someone else. :)</p>
<p>Whatever guidelines are offered here, many which look good, are describing the “average” experience … and in the case of growth patterns there is A LOT of variance from person to person … enough that any general rules of thumb are probably pretty much meaningless (unless the parent’s fit that pattern). </p>
<p>For example, over the holidays a friend and I were talking about this subject in respect to our sons … I was lamenting that I only grew about 1 inch after entering high school and my friend talking about his 5 inch growth spurt in college … we’re both 5’7"/5’8" … and looking at our kids I’d be surprised if either one followed our growth patterns (both are sons are 5-6 inches taller than we were at a similar age)</p>
<p>3togo, I agree with you. My nephew 6’2, has a dad(5’7) and mom(5’) would have been 5’4 according to the guidelines/height predictor. Apparently, nutrition in the womb is more important, my 5’ sister-in-law had a craving for cheese burger during her pregnancy and that may explain why he is 6’2(no he is not adopted). Now I can blame me for having soup & salad during my D1 pregnancy and I thought I was eating sensibly(lol).</p>
<p>While kids tend to follow parental growth patterns (this is one of the ways, for example they sort out boys who are “late bloomers” from boys who are growth hormone deficient, since often the father also very likely developed late), there is also the whole rest of the family tree to consider. My daughter, for example, is a little shorter than I am (and, SuzieQ, I ate tons of cheese danish while pregnant with her!), but she clearly takes after my husband’s family. Though he is taller than average, his mother and sisters were shorter than average. That’s why in the same family you can have siblings who are short and siblings who are tall.<br>
If kids stop growing when they still should be growing, it’s worth checking out, since there are conditions and illnesses that might be affecting them. However, the “science” of growth prediction is not terribly accurate, as many of the stories here demonstrate.
Back to the OP, though. Given your daughter’s complaints not just about her height but about her lack of sleep, it seems as if maybe she’s asking you for a way to help relieve her of some stress. Perhaps she doesn’t want so much to go see a doctor to talk about her height, but to find someone she could talk to about other issues involving the stress?</p>
<p>According to my mother, a pediatrician, later babies tend to be larger than first-borns b/c the uterus, having been expanded in previous pregnancies, has more room for growth. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, e.g., premature deliveries. Definitely, though, my D was a much bigger baby than my S (8#12oz for her vs. 7#6oz for him) even though she was only two weeks late and he was three weeks late. He was worried that she would turn out taller than he is, but she stopped about three inches shorter than he, much to his relief.</p>
<p>My son broke his wrist last year - age 16.5 (a really bad break in two places) and his orthopedic surgeon said that he would heal nicely because his growth plates were still open, which meant he was still growing. He has grown about 2.5 inches since then (now reaching about 6’3).</p>
<p>My husband and I were married young (19 and 20) and he grew after we were married! In fact when I first met him, he was 15 and about my size (5’ 1"), four years later when we met again, he was about 5’ 8". He’s now about 5’ 9". I assumed that our boys would also have a late growth spurt, and although it might happen with our youngest who is one of the shortest kids in 6th grade, our oldest is 17 and 5’ 11". That’s taller then anyone on either side of our family and I was thinking he was done growing - we’ve never had anyone that tall before! My daughter is my height and at 19 has not grown since freshman year in hs.</p>
<p>I’ve never worn heels for more then very special occasions, they’re just not comfortable. There’s lots of things we can change about our appearance but being short is kind of fun. I can stand up in an airplane even if I have the window seat!</p>
<p>sac, you are right about the stress part. I did offer to take her off honors class but she said no. We move down to Southern California from the competitive Bay area so my kid can have some fun in high school, but I guess it’s not as laid back as I thought.
kathiep, I agree being short is kind of fun,other than my hair dresser often tell me not to wear a certain hairdo( because of my height)and I notice I tend to grow horizontally as I get older(lol).</p>
<p>Today my D had an Xray and it was confirmed the plates indicate a bit more growth.</p>
<p>Momofonly: if your D is still drinking gallons of milk, you might want to consider (if you haven’t already) organic milk without the artificial hormones injected into most cows. There’s a lot of evidence that this can cause health risks, particularly for women. My pediatrician H thinks most kids drink too much milk in general, but he particularly worries about the hormones.</p>