However, several formulas can provide a reasonable guess for child growth. Here's a popular example: Add the mother's height to the father's height in either inches or centimeters. Add 5 inches (13 centimeters) for boys or subtract 5 inches (13 centimeters) for girls.
DNA determines a person's height. However, environmental factors, such as nutrition and exercise, can affect growth during development.
Bone age method is more accurate as it requires a X-ray to predict the future height of the child. This method is one of the most accurate methods for predicting the future adult height of the child without determining the skeleton age.
Mid-parental method
Another way to estimate your child's adult height is to add together the height of both parents and divide it by two. Then, some methods say to add 5 inches if they're a boy and subtract 5 inches if they're a girl; others say to only add or subtract 2 ½ inches.
Boys tend to show the first physical changes of puberty between the ages of 10 and 16. They tend to grow most quickly between ages 12 and 15. The growth spurt of boys is, on average, about 2 years later than that of girls. By age 16, most boys have stopped growing, but their muscles will continue to develop.
Doubling a child's height at age 2 can provide an estimate of how tall that child will be in adulthood. (Boys are usually a little taller than that number and girls a little shorter.)
If you are a man with average height, you can expect your son to be a few inches (centimeters) taller than you. This is because the regression line and the SD line both coincide at the average heights. For instance, a father with an average height of 67.7 inches (172cm) will have a 68.7-inch-tall (175cm-tall) son.
Scientists estimate that about 80 percent of an individual's height is determined by the DNA sequence variations they have inherited, but which genes these changes are in and what they do to affect height are only partially understood.
Shoe size generally is proportional to height, so it's used in many height-predicting formulas out there. A lot of the time, these formulas take into account the parents' height, as well. However, the results are usually far from reliable. Prior to puberty, many kids haven't had a major growth spurt yet.
The average height at age 2 is, in fact, about half of the average adult height, and the correlation between height at 2 and height in adulthood is about 0.75 for boys and 0.65 for girls—about what the chart would yield at that age.
What are the signs of growth spurts? Changes in your child's height and weight caused by increases in bone, muscle and fat are the most immediate signs that your child is experiencing a growth spurt. Other signs of a growth spurt include: Decrease or increase in appetite.
Typically, boys will tend to grow an average of 3 inches, or 7.6cm, each year during puberty. In general, a boy's age during puberty will not affect his final height, but it will affect when his height growth begins and stops.
Though it's probable that your real height is close to your predicted height, this isn't always the case. It's entirely possible for two short parents to have a tall child, and vice versa. It's just more likely that the child of short people will end up vertically challenged.
A combination of genetics and external factors can affect how tall a child will grow. Health experts believe that 80% of a person's height is genetic. This means the height of biological parents can be an indicator of a child's height, although this is not always a reliable predictor.
If a mother and father are the same height, their daughters will be roughly the same height, but their sons will be taller. This is because in order for the mother to be the same height as her husband, she must have more of the other 'tall genes' than him, and these get passed onto her sons.
Because boys have the sex chromosomes XY, they must inherit their Y chromosome from their father. This means they inherit all the genes on this chromosome, including things like sperm production and other exclusively male traits.
They may even think they act more like one than the other. And while it is true that you get half of your genes from each parent, the genes from your father are more dominant, especially when it comes to your health.
How Tall Should a 12-Year-Old Be? We can only speak to national average heights here in North America, whereby a 12-year-old girl would be between 137 cm to 162 cm tall (4-1/2 to 5-1/3 feet). A 12-year-old boy should be between 137 cm to 160 cm tall (4-1/2 to 5-1/4 feet).
Taking care of himself — eating well, exercising regularly, and getting plenty of rest — is the best way for your son to help his body reach its natural potential. No pill, formula, or nutritional supplement can increase someone's height. Mostly, our genes determine how tall we will be.
If your baby tops the length charts, you might expect them to tower above their classmates one day. But a long infant won't necessarily become a tall adult—just like short babies don't always turn into small-statured people. In fact, a fetus' size is largely determined by the placenta's health.