Last updated on January 12, 2023
Question:
Hello,
I’m 12, almost 13. I’m wondering why I’m growing slower. I was 5’5 in July, 5’6 in August, and 5’7 in October and since then I haven’t grown. I got a Tanner score of 3.8-3.9 and my parents are 5’3 and 6’0. Will I be 6’0+ like all the males on my father’s side?
Answer:
Growth is not a continuous event. It comes in spurts. You shot up two inches in four months. That is a growth rate of 8 inches per year if it was continuous. However, your body has limited energy to spend on growth and there are other things that need to grow beside your bones. Thus, the body will pause the growth of your bones to work on making your heart, lungs, liver, etc. bigger to match your bigger body. Then it will go back to growing your bones. This is why I tell people to measure once or twice a year and not once a month.
If you are near the end of stage 3, then your speed of growth will slow down. During the two years you are in stage 4, it will continue to slow down. During that time, you will probably add another 1 to 3 inches to your height. Growth in height doesn’t stop until you reach stage 5.
For estimates of your final height see Predicting Your Adult Height. Boys in a family will grow to a minimum of their parents’ average height. The maximum they will reach is up to 10 inches more. Exactly how tall you will get depends on the mixture of genes you inherited from your parents. Thus, your minimum height will be 5’7.5 inches, which you are already close to and you are not done growing yet.