Undersized 4.5 yo?

[Collinsky]

My Ds is 4.5 this month... he's always been a peanut, and I was okay with it until I realized he's going to be 5 in half a year. FIVE. He's the same size as my 2.5 year old, who is average sized for his age. (Same weight, to within a couple ounces, and the 4 yo is about an inch and a half taller... so there is that...)

Dh and I are both short (5' and 5'5" respectively); both grandmothers are my height, both grandfathers are Dh's height. I'm not expecting him to be tall. But I'm wondering if at this point we need to be prepared for him to end up significantly shorter? How do we guesstimate that? When is it a problem, if it ever is? I'm not planning on looking into anything like HGH injections - shortness isn't a big issue for me. But it's really striking me, realizing how old he is, how SMALL he is.

ETA He's very healthy and active, agile and energetic, and developing well across the board. So I'm not worried that anything is seriously wrong. It may also be relevant that even though he's not even on the charts for weight or height, my other kids are all around the 3rd-5th percentile marks for their age/sex.

[swiesz]

My middle son is also a peanut. He weighs the same (within a pound ) of my 2 1/2 year old and he is 5 1/2 They are 3 years apart and about the same weight. he is a little taller but not that much considering the 3 year difference. I will say he is strong and agile. He can do monkey bars and climb things much easier than his older brother as it is less weight to move around which helps. He did get upset in school as they weighed and measured all the kids to watch their growth thru the school year and he got upset with a friend because he weighed less. I have also had a kid come up to me and ask if he is really 5 1/2 because the kid was 4 and taller. I just pointed out that people come in all sizes and colors and if you look at the adults they are all sizes and kids are the same way. That made them all look around and they seemed to accept this and move on. My husband is about 5'5" I am about 5'6" and have brothers and dad who were about 6', so I have a feeling that my middle boy will be my smallest with his younger brother taller and bigger. My oldest is also short but not quite as much as the middle one.
sorry for the ramble, but it could all change-you really never know.

[ecoteat]

 I have a little one too. She's about the 5th %ile for weight, and was up until fairly recently around 10th for height, but she's been shooting up taller without gaining any weight. I just looked up a chart and she's almost at 75th for height! How did that happen?! I'm tall (5'9") and my family is all very tall--I have uncles that are pushing 7' and my mom is 6'. But dh is about 5'6" and his family is all shorter than him. I've always thought that she would never be as big as me and we would never share shoes since her feet are so tiny, but maybe that will change! Well, maybe not the shoe part. She only wears a 7-8 in shoes so far!

ETA: Apparently I can't read a growth chart and/or a ruler. I just measured and looked up her height again today and she's around th 35th %ile. Oops. That's still a big jump from 2 years ago, though! Even if she's close to average for height, she has the tiniest little butt. She can still wear 2T pants in some brands.

Edited by ecoteat - 11/15/10 at 1:58pm

[MissMaegie'sMama]

I go with our pediatrician's claim: if the kid's growing and healthy, height and weight are nothing but numbers.  

My soon-to-be 5-year-old is "little" too. She's in the 35th %ile for weight and the 30th %ile for height. I am 5'8" and about 115 lbs., so I'm fairly tall and really slender. DH is 5'10" and 150 lbs.- not a huge guy. I don't know if DD is abnormally small comsidering her parentage, but I'm not worried about it- she's healthy and growing.  Also, just because I'm taller than a lot of other women doesn't mean that my DD has the same genes regulating her height... she might just have more in common with her more petite relatives. However, that doesn't mean that I don't get (inwardly) annoyed when others make a big deal about how "small" she is.

[LynnS6]

Have you tried one of those online "predict your child's height" calculators? I'd do that to see whether he'll get close to 5'5" tall, like his dad. If it predicts he will, I'd relax. If his growth trajectory predicts something under 5', I'd wonder if there's something more going on. But really, he sounds like he's healthy and developing well. He just happens to be the child of petite people. Any wonder that he's petite himself?

[marieangela]

My older son (8 in Jan) and my younger son (5) are the same height and the 5 year old weighs more.  They are often mistaken for twins.  It is interesting how two children of the same parents can grow so differently.  My husband is 6'4" and I am 5'7".  I figure that, although they are growing at different rates, my older son may just have a growth spurt or two somewhere along the line and end up being tall.  My boys are both healthy and active.  My dh worries about our older boy, but our pediatrician never has.  He is growing slowly, but surely, on his own little curve.

[wild_reilly]

I have a little guy too. He's just snuck onto the growth chart... maybe 3rd percentile for height. He's okay for weight - somewhere in the 25%...

I agree with this post by MissMaegie'sMama:
 

Originally Posted by MissMaegie'sMama 

I go with our pediatrician's claim: if the kid's growing and healthy, height and weight are nothing but numbers.  

Having said that, like you, I am concerned about his height. I don't worry about it from a health perspective as he is a healthy little guy who is developing normally.

But I'm wondering if at this point we need to be prepared for him to end up significantly shorter? How do we guesstimate that? When is it a problem, if it ever is? I'm not planning on looking into anything like HGH injections - shortness isn't a big issue for me. But it's really striking me, realizing how old he is, how SMALL he is.

I get the feeling from your post that, like me, you don't have health concerns. You just want to make sure your little guys is okay. I relate because sometimes I just feel for my guy in the future in terms of being in highschool and being 5' while all the other boys are half a foot or more taller than he is (and so are the girls!)... I don't think there's much I can do about this, except help him be a self-confident guy. It's not easy being the short one! Even as the person who was often the shortest girl in the class, it sometimes gets tiring being the smallest one! (And I'm not that small! 5'3")

I would actually NOT do the online height calculators because it can be a bit depressing. I did one for DS about a year ago and it showed up that he wouldn't even hit 5' tall. Ugh! I did it again this year and it put him in the very low end of the 5' range. Very low. I'm going to guess that he's going to be taller than me. Not by much. And that he's going to be shorter than most guys. And he's going to be just as smart, just as capable, just as physically able - I just do what I can to make sure he's confident and sure of himself.

(And, for what it's worth - he seems to be attracted to really tall kids so the differences just seem magnified! If he hung out with a bunch of other peanuts I probably wouldn't even notice!)

[Collinsky]

Thanks for all the replies - I did do an online calculator once I got an accurate height for him, and it says 5' 2"... which isn't tall but isn't very worrisome to me. 

Our caregiver isn't worried, as his growth follows the normal curve exactly (it's just way under it LOL). He's growing adequately, and actually has managed to stay slightly taller than his little brother, even though for the last couple years it's looked like he was going to overtake him in height. They seem to be growing at the exact same pace.

I'm feeling much better, and no longer like I ignored something I should have been addressing. He's very healthy and the most physically adept of all my children.... so I'm feeling reassured that all is well with him.