How accurate is the height approximation of your children when basing it off of his/her parent's height?

Question

I am 5'8'' and my wife is 5'5''. We recently had a baby boy who is now 7mo old and is at ~85%tile for height/age, where he has been the majority of the last 3mo. This basically means that out of 100 children his age only about 15 would be taller than him. I know that there is a formula that uses a variation of the average of the heights of the mother and the father. This makes sense, but probably doesn't take into account genetic information skipping generations or nutritional factors, both of which could have quite a strong impact on growth. Has anyone else had a child taller than their parents by a reasonably large degree? What have others' experienced with their children with respect to height comparisons with them?

Thanks for your info and God Bless!

Answer 1

I think the approximation is very close to your parents.

Many children that will grow to only moderate height, grow very fast early on.

From what I have seen, most kids end up about the height of their parents. My father was 6'1. Mother was 5'10. I am 6'1 and my brother is 6'3.

I would guess your son will end up being about 5'8 to 5'9 especially since your wife is average height.

I don't think nutrition will affect his growth much. You probably had decent nutrition as a kid and so will he. This was a bigger factor 100-200 years ago or in underdeveloped nations where kids frequently dont get enough food, or dont get enough variety.

Answer 2

It is VERY inaccurate. The only guideline for adult height that is at all reliable by professionals is for boys: Height at age 2 x 2.5 for girls: Height at age 2 x 2. Not 2 and 4 months, but EXACTLY two years old. This is important as most children start a growth spurt again around 2.5 years old.

This is the basic guide for the genetics of the matter based on average growth patterns. Environment, things like food and exercise also impact on height. For example, drinking lots of milk will accelerate growth due to the LARGE quantities of growth hormones and other crap pumped into cows. Weight training before maturity will stunt growth....

Enviromental factors like these can either slow done or speed up maturity. For example a girl who reaches menarche early will stop growing sooner.

Good Luck

Yes MANY children in the last 30 years have out grown their parents due to environmental factors. my SO stands 7 inches over his mother and 5 over his father. He is head and shoulders above anyone else in the family.

My uncle and his wife both are under 5'3" and their shortest of three sons is 5'10".

On the other hand, I'm 3 inches shorter than either of my parents.

Usually tallness is dominant.

The genetic variance with the formula given is within 3 inches either way.

Answer 3

well i am taller than my parents my mother is 5'4 and my father is 5'8 and i am 6'3". The formula the dr. uses is just a guess based on averages. They double the child’s height at two years old and add three inches if it is a boy . But like you said that does not take into account grand parents height nutrition or even excersie or lack there of which can all affect height. In my case my great grand father was over 6 feet and so are some of my uncles , and on the other side of the family my grand father was 6 foot so that is where I get my height from. My brother is 21 and is only 5’8 so he won’t be 6’ so it all depends.

Answer 4

You can't go by just the Mother & Father to determine height. And those wonderful charts they fill out when your child is a baby really doesn't do more than give the doctor information on his growth rate to make sure that he is growing & thriving which is why they chart both height and weight.

My husband is 6', I am 5'6", my oldest is 15 and already 5'8", my middle is 13 and only 5' and my youngest is 10 and she is almost 5' tall already....my father-in-law is over 6' and my mother-in-law is only 4'10". Now on my side my brother is 6'2", my dad is 5'11", my mom is 5'4" and I have an uncle (my dad's little brother) that is 6'3" My dad's other two older brothers are shorter than he is. Now I have two children that are going to be tall and one that will probably top out at around my height. What a crap shoot. Mind you my brother was shorter than I am until he was 16 when he began to tall up. So my middle one still holds out hope for height....mind you all my kids are girls and they tend to get their height earlier than boys. So who knows, between good eating habits and the genetic pool anything can happen and usually does! Good luck and Best wishes!

Answer 5

I work in a pediatric endocrinology office and the way we calculate a child's predicted height is by figuring the mid-parental height. Based on the information you have about yours and your wife's height, the mid-parental height is 5'7". Which means your child could be anywhere between 5'5" and 5'9". If your child is in the 85 percentile, that means he is well within what is normal for his family. For instance, if mom and dad were 5'6" and 6'2" respectively, the mid-parental height would be 6". So if your child was growing in the 3rd percentile, you would know you have a growth problem b/c he is not growing in what would be considered "normal" for his family.

It is a pretty accurate prediction. It is actually used to determine whether we do lab work or x-rays to see if a child may have a growth issue. Of course there is always the exception. Your child could be 6 ft. or 5 ft. There is really no 100% accurate way to know how tall your child will be.

Answer 6

I used to go by the old "take their height at 2 years old and multiply it by 2" thing and the one for my oldest daughter was WAYYYYY off. I'm 5 foot 8, her dad was 5 foor 10 or 11 and at 2 years old she was 3 feet tall. Taking that average she would grow to be 6 feet tall but she has finally settled on her growth at 5 foot 5. My son was 3 1/2 feet tall at 2 years old and is still very tall for his age (he's 4 now) but again, I am only 5 foot 8 and his dad is 5 foot 9. I don't think he will grow to 7 feet tall.

Answer 7

I know a man whose parent's a tall...mom is 6' and dad is 6'6"...and he's MASSIVE! He's 6'10"! There are all the genes in the family tree to think about, plus like you said nutritional factors and such. But there's an example for you.

Answer 8

a child is about half his or her height at the age of 2 years. wait til then and you'll have a better idea of his height as an adult.