[Juzsal]

My 4 and a half year old son is very short. He measures 96cm which is way under average. I have never met a. Hild his age smaller than him. I am only 5 "3 and my husband is not overly tall. Does anyone else have a child of similar height? Thanks

[tkenhrb]

My DD is 5.4 months is 93cm and weighs 13.7 kgs

[Jemstar]

Yes, two of them. My eldest and youngest were both 95cm at 4.5. At 6 my youngest is only 107cm and 15kg. At 10 my eldest is 134cm and 26kg. My middle boy is more 'average'.

And I have seen childen smaller than them yes. Not many, but a few! Neither of them are the smallest in their year level at school.

This post has been edited by Jemstar: 09/02/2013, 10:21 PM

[sparkler]

Hi, my 5 and a half year old DS is approx 99cm which is below the 1st percentile and is 12kg, he is now seeing a paediatric endocrinologist and we believe the cause to be IUGR or possible RSS with no catch up growth but he is going to have a GH provocation test to check his levels before we consider going ahead with GH treatment.

Some people have short children who are happy and healthy and everyone is fine with that and if that is the case for you and your family that is fine, however unless you and your husband are both around the 3rd percentile for final adult height I would reccomend considering talking to your GP about it as short stature can be a symptom of an underlying health issue.

I am happy to chat about causes of short stature some more if you like.

This post has been edited by sparkler: 09/02/2013, 10:35 PM

[barrington]

My middle child hit 100cm around her 5th birthday. Although she is very petite and children two years younger than her are the same size, she is not the shortest in her class.

The biggest problem we have with her size (apart from clothing) is that her friends tend to 'baby' her.

[barney34]

OP, Im on a holiday with family at them moment but when I get home ill measure my DS, my guess is that he'll be the same as your DS and he too is 4.5 years. Im also quite short 5"4 so im guessing unfortanetly he takes after me. Its been a constant inner worry for me, and yes he is noticebly shorter than boys his age! He will start school next year and im really worried about the teasing/bullying he may get, and as a primary school teacher I have/do see the littler boys get teased. Im just trying hard to bring him up confident and work at his resiliance!

Sparkler, would love to know a lttle more about the IUGR diagnosis and what is RSS?

[bark]

Yes my ds s 96cms and falls in the under 3%, I do too though, we have had various tests and no abnormalities noted, no much we can do, just hereditary unfortunately he took after me and not DH!

[lifehacker]

dd is 4 yrs 5 months and she has just hit 97 cms tall, she still fits in size 1 around the waist and size 2-3 clothing for length. She's always been tiny. I don't know her weight atm but it wouldn't be much.

ds who is 6 is much the same, although he has had a growth spurt in the last 6 months. I need to measure him again, he still wears a size 4. The kids at school pick him up and carry him around.

The next 2 babies after the above mentioned ones are much bigger, infact ds is 13 months younger than dd and is already taller and much chunkier. He is in bigger clothing (size 4) the same size as his 6 yr old brother and he's only 3.

This post has been edited by lifehacker: 20/02/2013, 06:38 PM

[NotBitzerMaloney]

DS is 5 years 6 mths, just recently had a huge growh spurt (for him) and put on 2kg to hit 14kg and is 104cm tall. I just bought him small size 3 pyjamas and the pants fell off. He wears an average of a size 2 pant and a size 3 tshirt.

His dad and their entire family are incredibly short, so basically he just has to get used to it because he'll probably be 1st percentile like all his cousins.

They have all individually assessed the risks and benefits of growth hormone and all came to the decision that they weren't willing to go down that path. I'm not even going to to that far and have ruled it out. If there was no 'reason' for his lack of height I might look at it, but his genetic potential is fairly well demonstrated by the rest of the family.

However, I think it is worth testing for things like celiac disease and other worse things if you have concerns.. Better to rule things out than wonder "what if"...

[Anemonefish]

My 4yo DS is very short too. He's 94.5cm which puts him in the 10th percentile for height. All the other kids his age that we know are much taller than him. DH & I have been worrying about it off and on, even though I think it's just because he got my height genes (I'm 159cm), and DH isn't tall. At his 4yo check up last week, our GP said that he looks really healthy and that he's probably just genetically short. She said to keep track of the height for age chart and if he stays on the 10th percentile, there's nothing to worry about, he'll just be a short adult.