Short Parents= Short kids??

[Nexo]

hello everyone
i'm a newbie, i'm not a father yet, but me and my wife are trying to have one. But something is actually kinda worrying us, the fact that how tall they are going to be, or more precisely how short they can be, since we're both not the tallest of people. I'm only 5'6(1,67) and she is only 5'2(1,53), so we know our kids will never be as tall as a NBA player(even though, there is one with 5'5,lol). My question is can we do something to prevent our children to at least be taller than we are?
I dont want my children to be neglected or be rejected by our society, just because they are small, and unfortunately we live in a materialistic world, where fashion and money dictate our trends.

 

[DoraT]

No worry pal

Dear Nexo
You really should rest your worry and just go ahead with you 'production'. Nowadays most kids are tallker than their parents. Old medical teachings have it that girls and boys are around 2.5 cm shorter and taller than their parent's average, respectively.
But genetics only partly explains everything. There is always the nurture side of things, other than nature. So may be you should be 6' if your parents took care of your better (no offence).
Or else who else of us can father Yao Min!
Kind regards
DT

 

[sky123]

I don't think you can do anything about genetics but nowadays many children are taller than their parents because of the better food and more balanced diet. I guess that is where you should try and help your children. As for genes, if any of the grandparents are relatively tall it maybe that your kids will be tall. Try not too worry too much over something that really you can't have control over - believe me you will have many other things to worry about.

 

[tikkunolam]

I'm 5 feet tall and my husband is 5'4 and neither of us feel judged or neglected by the world. Fretting about something as trivial as height shouldn't deter you from contributing to the gene pool. It takes all kinds to make up this world and what really counts is the personality not the height. Often people don't believe that I am so short if I reveal my actual height because they say my presence is much greater than my stature. I really don't care one way or another what the marketers target. I'm a prudent buyer with my money and I'm not swayed by silly fads.

Nutrition is key and I've heard that protein and calcium contribute to height. I read a study long ago about children born in the US from parents who immigrated from India were a lot taller due to the changes in the diet. My husband and I were both premature which we think might be related to our height but our families are average height.

 

[capital]

agree with what others have said, people on average are getting taller with each generation due to improvements in nurtition. Are you and your wife taller than your own parents? If you both grew up with good nutrition there may not be a lot more you can do, but I wouldn't worry about it so much.
People are not going to have a terrible life if they are short. Best to teach your child that people come in all sizes, and show examples your elf that you are not judging people based on their physical apearance. I don't see where size has anything to do with money and fashion. You can always encourage activities where smallness is an asset, like gymnastics

 

[joannek]

i'm 5'2", my hubby is 5'4". so we're pretty small. my daughter has always been 50%tile on height charts. altho i think in real life she's taller than a lot of chinese 2 yr old girls. i make sure she has plenty of exercise (running & jumping & climbing), and good nutrition.

 

[KatBoo]

I am 5ft, and certainly don't feel neglected or rejected by society. It has never even entered my head that my children will be neglected or rejected by society because they may also be short. Infact, I feel slightly insulted. As the previous poster said...people come in all shapes and sizes, and this is a good lesson to teach.

If something like this is worrying you so much, I dread to think how many sleepless nights you may be having about the million other attributes that children have a chance of being born with (genetic or not) eg.cleft pallet, club foot, blind, deaf....

 

[jools]

Dear Nexo,
There really are bigger things to worry about.

Our beautiful little 16 month old has just been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. If you don't know what that means (it does not affect the asian population as they don't carry this genetic mutation) here is some information.

The current average life expectancy for cystic fibrosis people is 37.5 years. Imagine being told that your child, who means more to you than life itself, may not live past the age you are now.

Cystic fibrosis people produce too much mucous, therefore our little man has to have daily chest physiotherapy to keep his lungs clear in order to prevent any chest infections taking hold. If he does get a chest infection then he has to have rigourous treatment with antibiotics and could end up in hospital. Of course any chest infection can leave his lungs damaged and one treamtment for cf is to have a lung transplant, though this is not a cure.

Cystic fibrosis people can't absorb food as we do, since their pancreas doesn't work properly, so our little fella also has to take pancreatic enzymes before he eats anything. Since cf people can't absorb fats and proteins properly, he also has to take vitamin supplements to ensure that he is getting enough of the fat soluble vitamins.

On top of this he may also have fertility problems when he is older.

Oh and I forgot to mention, as yet there is no cure.

So in the grand scheme of things if your child is a little shorter than their peers think yourself lucky. Rather than worrying about this, maybe you should be heading down to the doctors' clinic to have yourself and your wife genetically screened to make sure that you are not carriers of some hideous genetic illness.

 

[Neha]

I agree with Jools there are alot more things that are worse than being short. I am 5.8 and my husband is 6.1 but our son is very short compared to all the kids as he was born very small and the dr says he wont be as tall as. but we dont care as long as he is healthy we are more than happy and I feel living in HK he will probably find clothes better being short

So just relax and 1st have a child and then worry about other things.


Bets of luck

 

[barbwong_130]

A general formula for working out how tall a child will be (even before the child is conceived) is:

girls = average height of mother and father

boys = average height of mother and father plus 6 inches.

Also remember the statistical theory of returning to the norm. This means that if you have two short parents the child is likely to be taller than them (nearer the average height) and if you have two tall parents then the child is likely to be shorter than them (again nearer the average height).