My Five Year Old Is Little!

Remember, it takes all sizes to make average. Some have to be smaller than average. As long as his dr. isn't concerned, you shouldn't be either.

I have 2 children boy 8 and girl 2 1/2 and they both are small when they were born and now. Don't worry, as long as there growth chart is on track you should be fine. Just think, before you know it they will be taller than us. :)

My 9 year old son is 49 1/2 inches tall and weighs 48 lbs. My 2 1/2 year daughter is 33 1/2 inches tall and weights 23 lbs. My husband is 5'12" and I am 5'4".

Here is a website to help you with the average weight:
http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/dieting/weight_he...

Hope this helps!
Take Care!

At about that age my friend's son was diagnosed with having a hormone deficiency. It seems his body was not producing the proper amount of growth hormone. The parents had to give him daily shots until he turns 16. At age 14, he is almost 5' 10" tall. Height is very individual, but your doctor should be able to tell you if there is a hormonal imbalance.

My daughter is 4'7 and almost 20. All during her growing years she was on the small side. It never bothered her until her teens when everyone passed her up. We took her to see if growth hormones would help and that is when we found out she had something called Madelung's deforminty and growth hormones would not help her. It is a genetic disorder. I have this as does my mom, her sister and my brother and his daughter, but most of us are at least 5'. My daughter just happened to get it more severely. It has been very hard on her. I would encourage you to start researching possible reasons for the short stature. If your child is a good candidate for treatment you will want to start before their growing period ends. For my daughter this was when she was 12.

I have gone through the same worries with my son who just turned 6. I am not sure what the average is, however, I do know that just when I really got concerned ( he hadn't really grown or gained weight in 18 months) he went through a growth spurt! He gained a few pounds and grew at least an inch and a half in the span of a couple months. His sister who is 2 years older went through the same thing. She was a petite 5 year old, and now a very tall 9 year old. My experience has been that all kids are different and grow at different rates throughout their life. My former husband grew so fast during his preteen years that he endured stress fractures in his spine! I also know of some kids who didn't stop growing until after high school. don't let the "percentiles" worry you too much...unless I am mistaken those haven't been updated in YEARS! you are doing a great job by staying aware and concerned.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. If your doctor isn't concerned, then I'm sure your son is fine. I have a similar story, though, but my son was the one who was bigger! Last week we went to my grandma's 80th birthday party, and we saw a lot of family that we don't normally see. My cousin's 5.5 year old son was exactly the same height as my son who just turned 3 two weeks ago! Also, I think my son was thicker! Sometimes kids are just smaller or bigger than others.

Hi R.,
I have no idea what the averages are (I figure my son will be however tall he will be). Here is a link to a chart from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set1clin...
You'll probably have to copy and paste that in sections given that it wraps onto another line. My son turns five on Wed, and he is a bit small for his age heightwise (42", maybe a bit bigger -- haven't measured him in several months). He fits in his 5T clothes lengthwise, except for a few exceptionally long items -- they vary by brand. However, he only weighs 34 pounds. The pediatrician says that we should not worry about our son's weight because he is staying on his own growth curve, so he don't. He holds his own just fine. Also, the men in our family tend to be short until about age 17. My younger brother was 5'1" until sometime during his junior year of high school (his nickname was Guppy), but then he shot up out of nowhere. Now as an adult he is 5'11". I am quite short, 5'1", and my husband is 5'11". Our son will only be so tall, but luckily kids these days (teenagers, anyway) seem to be far less concerned about boys being tall. My cousin's son is very short (he's in high school) but very popular. He has lots of friends and no issue getting attention from girls (he's a really cute kid). I guess my question is, what are you worried about? Averages are mathmatically derived. There aren't really "average" kids, at least no across all dimensions. At the 25th percentile, 25% of other kids who just turned five are shorter. As for the large three year-old, why does he matter? Maybe he'll be an offensive lineman in the NFL some day. I'm fine w/ not having my son be 6'5" and 350 pounds. Not everyone is meant to be in the NFL! Again, maybe your son will have a growth spurt later on. My guess is that he will, given your husband's and your heights. As long as your son is staying on his own growth curve (i.e., he stays at least at the 25th percentile), he is doing fine. Be careful, though, because if you and/or your husband are focusing on his height, he will pick up on that and start to lose self-esteem eventually, which is far worse than simply being on the shorter size. By the way, the average height for a 25 year-old man in the US right now is 5'10". At the 25th percentile, a man that age is 5'8.5", a 1.5" difference.
K.

I wouldn't worry about it. It is hard to know how tall he will be. My mother-in-law was in 95% in height from birth until 12. She was taller then everyone in her classes and everyone was sure she was going to be tall. She stopped at 12 and has never gotten above 5'2. My stepdaughter was very tiny like you son. She was not much bigger than my daughter who was almost 4 yrs younger. Clothes always fell off her and she always seemed to be shorter than the other kids until 2 years ago. She has grown alot and is now 5'4 at 13yrs old. I am not sure if she will get much taller but you never know when they will stop. My youngest has always been tall. He is almost 4 and is 43" tall. Most people have always thought he ws older and expected him to act like a child much older. That has always been difficult for us. I guess what I am saying is there is not a right height or weight for a 5 year old. As long as he is staying on the same curve and eating right don't worry he will get where he needs to be.

My daughter will be 5 in June and going to kindergarten in the fall. She is only 34 pounds - on a good day. I'd try not to worry about it. My mom and mom-in-law always compares how my husband and I were at that age - very small. My 9-year old was the same way - very small and he looks like everyone in his class now.

Be happy you have some healthy kiddos!

My 5yo is little too! He is the smallest in his kindergarten class, coming up to the chins of some of the girls in the class. He is healthy, active, bright (reading on the 3rd grade level right now), cute and yes, very little. But after a lot of worry and fretting, I decided to be GRATEFUL because I dont want to be picking up a 50-pounder each time he needs to be picked up. Nor do I have to buy clothes every 6 months. Nor do I have to worry about all those concerns of childhood obesity. :-D
He is barely 30 lbs, consistently (although SLOWLY!) growing, healthy, eats a healthy variety of foods well (just not a whole lot of it). I forget how tall he is, but he wears a 4T for pants and 5T tops (we skipped the 4T's in tops when recently clearing out the 3T's). We pull out LOTS of those buttonholes on those adjustable waist pants for him. He'll be 6 in a few months.

When he was a baby the pediatrician said to feed him butter, but he would have none of that! If I so much as buttered his bread, he would simply not eat it! Wasn't until around 3-4 that he finally consented to eating butter on his bread/sandwiches/pancakes. He does not like peanut butter either (so I use Nutella for his lunch sandwiches). I wont feed him junk food just to fatten him up, and look at it this way - I dont have to worry about childhood obesity and health-weight issues.

He will probably stay skinny/slim well into his high school years but good eating habits start now. I dont want him to become an adult and suddenly get fat and unhealthy eating the same things he's always eaten.

Besides which - why should we moms of little kids fret when big fat kiddos are skewing the weight chart averages? Especially when childhood obesity is on the rise, along with stuff like juvenile diabetes and all that? SOMEBODY has to be on the other end of the weight charts!

I am a Kindergarten teacher and my students range in size from smaller than my 2 1/2 year-old to almost as big as my 8 year-old! It's ok that he's a little on the small side. This shouldn't interfere with his making friends and has nothing to do with his cognitive ability, of course. Some of us are just wired to be small. It seems to level out a bit with the boys around 3rd grade, but then the girls shoot up and get taller than the boys for a few years!

I have a similar concern with my 3 year old. My 5 year old is very tall (she is in size 8 clothes, but is skinny as a rail), but my 3 year old is still in 2T and her feet are only a size 7! My husband and I are both very tall (I'm 6', he's 6'1"), so it's just really weird to us that our daughter is short.

I asked our pediatrician and he said that although she is on the low end of the height scale, she has remained consistent since she was a baby (i.e. she's always been in this percentile). He reminded me that being tall is a dominant trait, but being short is a recessive trait. So I checked back in our family tree and found out that yes, there was someone on my mother's side of the family who was really short a generation back and once removed (we're a family of amazons - every single woman in the family is 5'9" or taller except this second cousin). We couldn't find anyone short on my husband's side (his relatives make ME look short!), but there must have been someone! So... my little one got the recessive gene!

If my kids stay on their present growth curves, I'll have one who is 6' and one who is 5'. Both perfectly healthy, smart girls - go figure, huh? I don't know if it helps, but... you're not alone!

You can sign up for an online newsletter called parent center. It has a height predictor on it where you enter your height, his father's height and his height now. I think they have to be 4 to be able to calculate this. This will tell you within an inch either way, how tall your son will be.

Hi R.,

I went to my high school reunion recently and a boy who was always small was over 6 feet. I was shocked.

My brother-in-law said he was 5 foot 3 in. when he graduated fron high school and now he is 6 foot.

I am sure that if you are concerned about a medical reason why he may not be growing, they can look into it.

Also, sometimes in generations past there may have been a slight or short individual in the gene pool. Take a look back and see.

My son was always in the 95th percentile when he was a toddler and now at age 27 he is 5 foot ten in.,...who can figure, R..

I would not draw any attention to it.

Have a great day.

D. B. : )

I would say to be patient. My son was exactly the same way. Always the first or second to line up in school (from shortest to tallest) and up until last year he only came up to the shoulders of his best friends. I am 5ft4 and my son is now taller than me by about 3-4 inches. He is 17 now but last year is when he just shot up, so relax, your son will grow when his body is ready. =)

If your doctor is not worried about i would not be either. Every child grows at his or her own rate. As long as he is eating and going to bathroom regular i would not worry about it. As long as he is happy and healthy don't stress. He well probaply shot up when he hits puberty and be over 6 ft. I had a cousin who was 2 years older than me and he was shorted thatn i was until he turned 13. then in one year he grew 3 inches. He finally stoped growing when he was 20 at 6feet 7 inches. I stoped growing in the 6th grade and have been 5 feet 2 in. ever since.
A.

My 5 year old is similar only 25% in weight and 50% in height, my doctor says as long as he's growing steadily, eating healthy, and active theirs nothing to be concerned with. They'll grow at the rate that they are intended to grow, looking at charts and averages will only make you worry and perhaps (unintentionally) passing the worry onto your child, you don't need them to think that they are too short or too skinny.

Hi R., I wouldn't worry about it right. There are certainly worse things. My brother was not very tall at all growing up, until the summer between 10 & 11 grade he shot up, he is now 6'3". My son is almost 11 years old and he is also not all that tall compared to other kids, and has also always been small in terms of charts, but he will be fine whatever he turns out to be. All you need to do as mom is not make it an issue for him, make other things more important and he will be fine however he ends up.

No one ever added one inch to their son's height by worrying. ;-)
Try not to think about it, if you are worried your son will pick it up and may start to think something is wrong with him. Look at the bright side, you get to have him be "little" for longer. Enjoy it while it lasts, he will be looking down at you by the time he's 15.

My advice is to be careful, or you will give your child a complex. There's nothing wrong with 25% percentile when it comes to size! Children develop and grow at different rates. Your child may be a late bloomer, or he may just be smaller than average. If you feel ok with that, than your child probably will too.

I have a 7 year old that just made it above the 0 percentile! He weighs 39 pounds and looks like a poster child for famine. He still wears some size4 clothes. He eats and is healthy and I have given up fretting about it. He is who he is. Accept your child for who he is. As long as he is eating and healthy I wouldn't worry. Maybe that other child was over weight. If you are still concerned, talk to your peditrician.

I am a mom of 4 children, 14, 10, 7 and 4.