Height

At every well visit, we check a kiddo’s height to make sure we are still growing and growing well. Oftentimes weight can fluctuate a lot over the years, but if the body is not getting enough nutrients, we often will first see a stagnation in weight gain followed by a stagnation in height gain a few months after that. We also look at something called height velocity where we see how much height have we gained over a certain period of time. The amount of height per year we are expecting varies over a young child’s life, but a general rule is as prepubertal kiddos get older, we expect at least a 3 cm/year (about 1.25 inches/year) growth in height. Less than that, we may be concerned about a growth delay in which case a test called a bone age would be ordered. This test involves an X-ray of the child’s hand. In a growing kiddo’s hand, there are growth plates that let us know where on growth timing and timing of bone growth we are. We take this X-ray of the hand, and then by looking at the growth plates, the radiologist lets us know how old the bones are in comparison to how old the child is. If there is a large discrepancy, more testing may be needed to figure out the true cause of a possible growth delay. If the bone age is very similar to the kiddo’s actual age, then we just wait for big growth spurts to get kiddos back on track.

With the height chart, we often can make estimates of eventual adult height for the kiddo by looking at the growth charts and factoring in what the biological parents’ heights are with the calculation below:

·         For girls: subtract 13 cm (5.12 inches) from the father's height and average with the mother's height.

·         For boys: add 13 cm (5.12 inches) to the mother's height and average with the father's height.