How tall is your child going to be

How Tall Will My Child Be: Predicting Height

Before your child was even born, you probably wondered about their hair color, eye color, and height. While you can’t predict everything, there are some clues to help you tell how tall your child may be.

A number of factors go into determining how tall your child will be. Some of these are:

Gender

Boys tend to be taller than girls.

Genetic Factors

A person’s height tends to run in families. Most people in a certain family will grow at similar rates and be of similar height. However, this isn’t to say short parents may not have an extremely tall child.

Health Status

If a child has certain medical conditions, it can affect their growth. One example is Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes those who have it to be unusually tall. Conditions that may cause a child to be shorter include arthritis, celiac disease, and cancers. Also, children who took certain medicines, like corticosteroids used over a long period of time, may not grow as tall.

Nutrition

Overweight children will often be taller, while underweight or malnourished children may be shorter. However, this doesn’t always predict a child’s ultimate height.

There are several formulas that can estimate how tall a child might be. While none have been proven to definitely predict your child’s height, they can help give you a rough estimate.

Height at Young Age Method

For boys, double your son’s height at age 2. For girls, double your child’s height at 18 months.

Example: A girl is 31 inches at age 18 months. 31 doubled = 62 inches, or 5 feet, 2 inches tall.

Mother and Father’s Height Average

Calculate the mother and father’s height in inches and add them together. Add 5 inches for a boy or subtract 5 inches for a girl, to this total. Divide the remaining number by two.

Example: A boy’s mother is 5 feet, 6 inches tall (66 inches), while the father is 6 feet tall (72 inches):

• 66 + 72 = 138 inches
• 138 + 5 inches for a boy = 143
• 143 divided by 2 = 71. 5 inches

The boy will be an estimated 5 feet, 10 inches tall. The results are usually within 4 inches, plus or minus.

Bone Age X-Ray

A doctor can take an X-ray of your child’s hand and wrist. This X-ray can show the growth plates of a child’s bones. As a child ages, the growth plates become thinner. When a child is finished growing, the growth plates will disappear. A doctor can use a bone age study to determine how much longer, and taller, a child may grow.

Girls and boys will typically experience a significant growth spurt in puberty.

This occurs at different ages for each gender. According to Nemours, girls usually begin puberty between ages 8 and 13. During this time, they will start growing breasts and begin getting their periods. Boys will typically begin puberty between ages 9 and 14.

Because girls tend to hit their growth spurts first, they tend to stop growing at a younger age, usually around age 16. Boys will often continue to grow until age 18.

However, children grow at different rates. How long a child may grow can depend upon when they go through puberty. If a child goes through puberty later than most children their age, they may grow until a later age as well.

If you’re worried your child may not be growing at an expected rate, talk to their doctor.

They can show you a growth chart of average growth, given your child’s age and gender. Your child’s doctor can use a chart to plot their growth. If your child has suddenly seemed to slow in growth or is much below the average growth curve, your child’s doctor may refer you to an endocrinologist. This doctor specializes in hormones, including growth hormones that play a role in how tall your child is. If your child’s doctor is concerned that your child may have a genetic condition, they may refer you to a genetic specialist.

Examples of factors that affect your child’s growth include:

• absorption issues with food
• kidney disorders
• overeating and nutritional status
• thyroid disorders
• growth hormone disorders
• heart or lung disorders

An endocrinologist can test your child’s blood and perform other tests to determine what factors may affect their growth.

If you’re concerned about your child’s growth, it’s important to seek medical care before they complete puberty, as they will usually stop growing after that time. Treatments may be available for children who are not growing as expected. If you have concerns, your child’s pediatrician is an excellent place to start.

Child height predictor: How tall your child will be

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Child's age

Child's height *

Child's weight *

Mother's height *

Father's height *

Curious to find out how tall your child will be when they grow up? We can't see the future, but with a little math and science, we can make a pretty good guess about how tall they'll be when they're 18 – with a margin of error under 2 inches.

This calculator works for children age 2 and up. (Depending on your child's age, we'll use some or all of the information you entered in our calculations.) You may get inaccurate results for children who are exceptionally tall or are already taller than both their parents.

The Height Predictor is meant to be a fun tool, and doesn't guarantee your child will be this height when they grow up. If you're concerned about your child's growth, talk to their healthcare provider.

How to tell how tall your child will be

There are a few different methods of predicting how tall your child will be when they grow up. Our Child Height Predictor tool uses the Khamis-Roche method, which is based on a study conducted in the 1990s with about 400 participants.

The method takes a child's height, weight, and the average height of their parents, then uses ratios to determine how to calculate the child's predicted height at age 18. A previous method also used the child's skeletal age, which is how mature a child's bones are and requires an X-ray. But the Khamis-Roche researchers wanted to find a way parents could predict their child's height without having to get an X-ray taken.

If you want to test out other ways to predict your child's height at home, these are a couple methods you can try:

Two years times two

Children grow a ton in their first few years of life – in fact, their first growth spurt from baby to toddler accounts for about half of their adult height. One simple way to predict how tall your child will be when they grow up is to take their height at age 2 if they're a boy or 18 months if they're a girl and double it. (Girls grow a little faster than boys.)

This method has been around for a long time, but there isn't any scientific research about how accurate it is.

Mid-parental method

Another way to estimate your child's adult height is to add together the height of both parents and divide it by two.

Then, some methods say to add 5 inches if they're a boy and subtract 5 inches if they're a girl; others say to only add or subtract 2 ½ inches. There's a high margin of error with this method – it could be off by 4 inches.

Rebekah Wahlberg

Rebekah Wahlberg is an associate editor at BabyCenter, the world's number one digital parenting resource. She lives in Southern California with her silly dog Booger, where she enjoys hiking, yoga, and watching Netflix when she "should" be reading. Wahlberg is passionate about creating content that helps parents and parents-to-be equip themselves with everything they need to succeed.

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How to find out how tall a child will be when he grows up: calculator and growth rates

Health

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Photo Alto / Legion

pediatrician

In the first year of life, children literally grow by leaps and bounds hours and grow 25 centimeters by their first birthday. Growth hormone is produced in the endocrine gland, which is located in the brain. This happens when the baby is sleeping, which is why healthy and restful sleep is so important. nine0003

“From one to three years old, a child on average gains 10 centimeters a year,” says pediatrician Marina Fedyushina. - From three to six years, the growth rate decreases: the mark on the stadiometer increases by about 4-5 centimeters. Until the age of 10, there is a slight slowdown, and already from the age of 11 (for girls) and from 13 years (for boys) there is a sharp jump in growth rates. After 40 years, we begin to decrease a little. This is due to fluid loss from the intervertebral discs.”

Place of birth matters

Obviously, growth is due to heredity. It is the genes that determine whether your son will be teased by Gulliver, and your daughter by Thumbelina. Not so simple.

“In 2014, American scientists conducted a large-scale study on the influence of genes on human growth,” says Doctor of Biology Antonina Volkova . - The project was carried out by specialists from 300 institutes, and the number of participants reached 250 thousand people. The experiment proved that human growth is influenced by various gene variations, and there are about 300 hundreds of them. It is important what were your ancestors (not just parents), from whom you got a certain appearance. nine0003

The scientists also found out that the northerners are much taller than the inhabitants of the southern regions. For the first time, the German biologist Karl Bergman told the world about this, he said that a hot climate contributes to a slowdown in growth processes.

Photo

Photo Alto/Legion

Growth Formulas

Doctors have come up with a few simple formulas that can be used to predict where in the ranks your child will stand in physical education classes.

1. The most common formula

Boy height (cm) = (Mother's height + Father's height) * 0.54 - 4.5 (cm)

Example: (165 + 183) * 0.54 - 4.5 (cm) = 183 .4 (cm)

Girl's height = (mother's height + father's height) * 0.51 - 7.5 (cm)

Example: (159 + 173) * 0.51 - 7.5 (cm) = 161.8 (cm)

2. Dr. John Hawker's formula

An employee of one of the largest private medical centers in the world, the Mayo Clinic, proposed the following calculations:

The boy's height is = (Father's height + Mother's height): 2 + 6.4

Example: (183 + 165): 2 + 6. 4 (cm) = 180.4 (cm)

Girl's height = (Father's height + Mother's height): 2 - 6.4

Example: (173 + 159): 2 - 6.4 (cm) = 159.6 (cm)

Boy's height = (Father's height + Mother's height * 1.08): 2

Example: (183 + 165 * 1.08): 2 = 180.6 (cm)

Girl's height father * 0.923 + mother's height): 2