Last week, Chloe had her 18 month well child check-up. She weighed in at a whopping 30 lbs. 5 oz. and measured 37 inches tall! Her growth curve continues to be off the charts (above the 97th percentile).Our doctor, who I like but who always races through our exams and doesn't offer much education, predicts that Chloe will be 6 feet tall when she's an adult. What?!? Sorry Dr. Kline, but I have to disagree. No one in our families is that tall and I know that height is linked to our genetic potential (I only found that out after a bit of google research). It's like this, the genes from mom and dad give the child a potential maximum height. If the child reaches that potential maximum height is based on nutrition and environmental factors. (Click here to read more.)
So, here's my question for you experienced moms out there. How does the height/weight percentile measurement compare with your real life experiences with your children? If you had a baby who was low on the percentile charts, did she stay small and underweight as she grew older?
(Want to have some more fun with this? Check out these height predictor tools for an estimate of your child's future height.)
10 comments:
I don't personally have any "experienced mom" things to say, but my dear husband was a slooooow grower. He was 5'4" and 95 lbs at age 16, and is now 6' tall and quite muscular! I would imagine my little guy is following in his daddy's footsteps - holding steady in the 3rd percentile here at 6 months. :-) You sure would be surprised if Chloe ended up being 6' tall!
I too don't have any "experienced mom" stuff to say. Just want to thank you for that link! I wonder what our children's heights will be since I'm 4-11 & Geoff is 6-3. I'm pretty sure we'll have short boys & tall girls just to go against the grain. Who knows, we might have a 6' girl!
Alicia,
Hope you don't mind another comment from an non-mother. I thought I might mention that my dad's parents were both very short. My grandma is 4'10 and my grandpa wasn't much taller than that. Yet, one of their sons, my Uncle John, is quite tall! My husband is 6'1 and my uncle definately has some inches on him. Who knows where he got that height? Nobody else in my family is tall like he is.
I'm not an experienced mom either, but I am looking forward to Kayla's 18 month visit in a couple of weeks (we're a little behind because we're waiting until we get back to Virginia). At her 12 month visit, she was 90th percentile in height and 50th in weight, but in the last six months, she has definitely filled out so I'm interested to see what her height and weight are now.
How interesting about the height prediction links.
Karis
Thanks everyone for the comments and personal testimonies from your family history! We'll just have to wait and see how Chloe turns out I guess. Though I'd be vvvvvvvvvvvery surprised if she turned out to be a 6 foot tall basketball player. :)
that is really interesting. that would be awesome if chloe was 6' tall. make sure you get her into volleyball!
I'm not very experienced either. Aaron is going to be two in a month and from the day he was born he's been below the growth curve and the doctors are always concerned. I'm only 5' and Ron is 5'9" so I think Aaron is doomed to be like Mom. He has a long torso though, but kind of short legs. My Mom tells me that I was a tiny baby and that I was able to wear my clothes for the longest time too. Aaron is just now fitting into 18 month old clothes, and that's just for the length. On a lot of his little pants I have to put a dart in them or else they'd fall off. So interesting how so many babies are so different. But, on another note, I've noticed that people whose first baby was small, their second one was chunky and just bigger all around. That would be another good survey.
my doc generally says that connor will be somewhere between mom and dad. which means he probably won't break 5'8"...most likely 5'6". at our last visit connor dropped big time on growth charts. doc just said, we'll make sure he stays on that path. that's when he asked me how tall nathan was and i said, "we're not tall people. i don't expect much from this little guy." :)he just laughed.
No mommy experience here, but my sister's doctor told her that you could roughly double the child's height at three years of age to determine a guess of their adult height. My nephew was just over 3' tall at age three so their guess for his adult height about is 6'. But I can vouch for height irregularities. I'm 5'10" & that makes me taller than my parents, g-parents, aunts & my sister. Only my brother is taller at 6'3". So who knows? :-)
Wow Alicia, 37" is soooo tall! You never know, I'm taller than my whole family. But I did the growth predictor with Ella, and it said she would only be 5' 2", which would be hard for me to believe with me at 5' 10" and Josh at 6' 3" Anyway, 6 feet would be a good height - I was always worried Ella right be like 6'5" or something, which would be hard, but apparently I don't need to worry about that anymore :)
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