Formula to determine future height?

Question

I read somewhere that there is a formula some pediatricians use to determine 'roundabout' future height for a child. Just curious to know for my son who is on the small side. Thanks.

Answer 1

I've heard various things about this, but the very best thing I had read about ten years ago, and it seems to be true, and that is: no matter how tall or short kids are, the best determiner of their final height [baring medical issues] is the height of the parents. If they are unusually tall or short, that will even out either when they are about 2, or when they reach adolescence.

My husband and I are both normal height. When my kids were babies they were sooo tall. For instance, my daughter was in a 2T when she was 9 mos old. When she was 7 she was a girls' size 12. Now she's 12 and is just a tiny bit taller than other girls her age. My son was huge as a baby, too, but evened out at 2, and is now a normal size 11 yo old. So if you and/or your husband are small, your son will probably end up small. If not then he will probably even out.

Answer 2

Predicting Adult Height
Many parents want to know how tall their baby's will be when they are born. There are many ways to guess, and sometimes you will get pretty close, but nothing is guaranteed and often your baby will end up several inches taller or shorter than the estimates just because of genes and the changing environment.

Double the Inches
Some people believe that you can double the inches of your two year old to determine how many inches they will be when they are at full adult height. If this was the case and your baby was 36 inches at two years old, then they would be 72 inches as an adult, or six feet.


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Growth Charts
In many cases you can go by the growth charts to get a general idea. By the age of two your baby's growth patterns should have stabilized enough that you can look at their chart and see if they fall more on the small side, average side, or high side of the chart. If they fall on the small side, they will probably be on the smaller side for adults. If they are in the 90% as a two year old, then they will probably be a tall adult.

The Formula
There is actually a formula some go by that can be pretty accurate. It says to add up the parent’s height and divide by two to get the average. Then for a girl subtract 2.6 inches and for a boy add 2.6 inches. That means that if mom is 67 inches tall and dad is 73 inches tall, making the total 140 inches, the average is 70 inches. This would make their daughter approximately 5'6" tall and their son approximately 6'0" tall. This is not always accurate however because it is possible that a girl might get a short grandmother's gene as her dominate gene, making her shorter than the formula states she would be.

Nothing is exact; after all it is all science. Everything is just the expert’s best guesses on how your child will grow through puberty and into adulthood.