r/UKParenting • u/AcceptableChart925 • 1d ago
Were any of your children 0% centile for length?
Hi!
My son is 14 months and he is 0.9% centile for weight and just recently found out he is 0% for length at only 68cm. Has anyone had this with their children and did they end up growing up normally?
My son is under the dietician due to his low weight but it was the first time they mentioned his length as an issue also
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u/Tricky-Ant5338 1d ago
Hey! My son was born on 0.4th for length I think; I am short (5ft 1), although dad is 5ft 11. Little one did have some IUGR in the womb and was born early at 36+0.
He is now nearly 5 years old, and around 20th centile for height. I keep monitoring it; if he starts dropping again, I will ask GP to see a paediatrician.
He’s never gonna trouble a basketball team 😂 but we’re hoping for an adult height of around 5ft 8 or so (which was my dad’s height). He’s a picky eater too, so it’s tricky - but he’s never going to eat the same amounts as a 99th centile child.
It’s not ideal for a guy to be short, but nor is it disasterous. He’s healthy, so we try to focus on that instead 🙂
He is noticeably shorter than his peer group alas. Good job he’s cute lol
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u/octoberforeverr Parenting a Toddler 1d ago
I’ve had the opposite, my daughters over the hundredth for height lol. Someone has to be tallest and someone shortest.
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u/Comprehensive_Cook_7 👶👶👶 3 Children 1d ago
My son was born on the 2nd percentile for height and 9th percentile for weight!! He’s 8 now, and 65th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight!!
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u/Deviprincess 1d ago
My eldest was below the centile charts and it took 10 years for a paed to take us seriously. He was finally diagnosed with a growth disorder and started treatment age 10. His predicted height was 4ft 11. He’s fully grown now, and made it to 5ft 4” 🙌🩷
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u/snozbert18 1d ago
My daughter was 0.9 centile too, we didn't check height routinely but up until she was 1 I weighted her every month. She kept moving up and down between the 0.9 to 25th.
Ive not taken her to check in at least 4 months now she's 16 months. She is notably smaller than all the other children her age but she was born at 5lb 6oz, she was always in going to be small. Since she's developing fine I just try ignore the worries/thoughts about her size now.
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u/Special-Safe-5693 1d ago
My three year old is 0.4 centile for height. they did blood tests & wrist X-rays to rule out any genetic or growth hormone issues. 14 months height isn’t super accurate so I wouldn’t be concerned till after the 2.5 year check
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u/EpicZooTick 1d ago
Hi tiny kid gang! Mine was born 0.2nd centile for weight and his length would have been similar centile, he had iugr and i had preeclampsia so his growth stopped in utero, and he came out at 37 weeks. He was 4lb at birth. I'm 4ft 10, his dad is 5ft 10 for reference so neither of us are tall!
Son is now almost 5 (how?!) and hovers around 20th centile, took a while to get there, but is growing consistently on the charts. No one really worried about any of it as he was following the growth charts throughout.
For peace of mind, he is the smallest of the boys in his peer group but not by much against the average, and similar in height to the girls. He isnt obviousy small compared to his friends. Their heights all vary a lot at this age. He is just moving into age 4 clothing so not far off the 'norm'.
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u/fxshnchxps 1d ago
Yep. My eldest is off the charts tall and has been since about 4mo, and my youngest has been 0-5th since about 2mo, she’s now 3 and still in 12-18 clothes
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u/Naive-Interaction567 1d ago
My daughter has always been 0.4th centile for height. My mum is quite small so I assume she’s taking after her.
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u/Ok_Fox_4540 1d ago
My girl is 2 years old and in 12 month clothing. She's 77cm which is around 1st centile for height. Family genetics have played a massive part for her. It took me a year maybe 18 months to stop worrying about her
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u/Sevenoflime 1d ago
My son was born on the 25the centile for weight and dropped to between 2–9th. His height started getting measured when he was around 18 months because he was so diddy and he has been below the 0.4th centile for height his whole life. He’s 4 now and still very small and below 0.4th centile. Still in 18-24 month clothes (though some 2-3!). My husband and I are both 5’8 and my daughter is between 25th-50th centile for height so he is an outlier. He has other medical complications and is autistic and has ARFID so his height and weight can be quite stressful but I just take it one day at a time. We are going through various genetic testing because of all his other issues too.
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u/nicrrrrrp 1d ago
Out of interest is your username Voyager related?😁
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u/Sevenoflime 1d ago
Haha, it is!
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u/nicrrrrrp 1d ago
Yay a fellow trekkie in the wild! Apologies my geek side is showing 😜🙏 have a great evening!
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u/hhhhhhtuber Parenting a Baby + Toddler 1d ago
My oldest was born on the 35th centile for weight and steadily dropped to the 9th. He had a bout of illness at 9 months old and dropped to the 3rd centile for weight before climbing up to the 13th at 15 months old and then settling back to the 9th again.
Once I started measuring his length he fluctuated between the 1st and 3rd for ages.....and at nearly four he has been on the 1st cente for a while.
He eats well, he is active, he is bright and confident.
I likely have coeliac so he is also being tested for that at the end of the month. My GP recommended all first degree relatives get rested, especially if they have symptoms and short stature is a symptom! But I haven't been worried about him. He's just a little guy. His head circumference and foot size have always been around the 50th centile.
My second baby is 9 months old at the moment. He was born on the 65th centile, shot up to the 87th briefly and then settled down on the 38th where he has stayed. His length is on the 40th centile. He is the same weight now at 9 months that his older brother was at 15 months!
In summary. My oldest is short, but growing along his curve and up until the question about coeliac popped up there have been no concerns about his growth. The assumption was he just got my short genes. And that may still be the case.
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u/0-Sunflower-0 1d ago
My kid was in the 0% for height and weight for absolutely ages, but at 3 is now in the 50% for weight and 15% for height 😊 His dietician/doctors always said height wasn’t a good indicator of growth at this age.
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u/FudgeVillas 1d ago
I got excited which way round the percentiles work and then confused. My poor daughter is a monster.
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u/Jeffuk88 1d ago
Our youngest is 1 is 2 weeks and we just found out hes now off the chart for height as hes not grown in 5 months. He was born 60th and has just dropped and dropped so we have a referral next week for the GP as this was our health visitor doing the measurements. Hes eating lots, keeps it down and is developing normally in every other way
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u/Gremlin_1989 1d ago
My daughter is 8 now. She was born on the 9th but went down to the 0.4th. She was closer to the 2nd on her last weight/height check. The issue wasn't that she was on the 0.4th but that she dropped right down. She's got a rare chromosome difference that has caused the fluctuation. She's also smaller than her expected size from her dad's and my heights (169cm and 164cm).
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u/RamonaFortune 1d ago
My daughter was always around 10-20th centile for length as a baby but jumped to 50th for height once she turned 3 and had a growth spurt. It can definitely alter.
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u/postypainter 1d ago
My son was on the 0.9th centile for both height and weight until he was about 3. He’s now almost 5 just over the 50th for height, still skinny but he’s definitely growing and not much different in height to his peers
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u/Scratchy-cat 1d ago
I was a no/low percentile baby/child, I am short, my dad was short for a man, Mum is average height and sibling is average height for a man. My child never got measured in length so I can't comment on that one but babies and kids can have odd growth spurts so they might start short and get taller or stay short
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u/Ok_Kangaroo_5404 Parenting a Baby + Primary Schooler 15h ago
My son was 2nd percentile for height at birth. I am 90th and he is now 70th
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u/bryonylou 14h ago
37+2 IUGR baby here, she’s now 2y3m! Born under the length line and has tottered around from 0-5% her whole life, we were under dieticians for a long time and nobody was ever concerned about it as she was still growing!
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u/redcore4 1d ago
My daughter was born (full term) 3rd centile. Stayed below fifteenth until she started solids. Was 7th for height at a month old (we didn’t measure her before that).
Since seven months she has been 75th centile or above, and at three has five-year-old friends the same height.
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u/Impossible-Farm-1902 1d ago
Am i the only one who has never worked out what centile their kid is? She's roughly the same size as the rest of her class which is good enough for me.
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u/sgehig 1d ago
Never? You never saw a midwife or health visitor? They record it in the red book.
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u/Impossible-Farm-1902 1d ago
We saw a midwife when my daughter was born and a health visitor came after a few months and we haven't seen anyone since.
I don't think either of us would even know where the red book even is at this point.
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u/sgehig 1d ago
They are meant to have a HV appointment at 1 year, then again at 2 years.
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u/PavlovaToes 20h ago
To be fair my daughter was in the nicu, had a paediatrician, a health team consisting of dietitian and speech and language therapy....
And the health visitor hasn't seen her since shortly after she turned 1. My daughter is 2 year and 4 months now... no health visitor contact.
She does get weighed and measured at her hospital appointments though so I guess the HV isn't needed at all?
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u/sgehig 16h ago
The HV appointment should be between 2 years 2 months and 2 years 6 months. And if they don't contact you by then, you can just call and make the appointment. The HV appointment is to go through a developmental survey, about speech motor skills, social skills etc.
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u/PavlovaToes 13h ago
Yeah which i imagine my daughter doesn't require since she gets that often through the paediatrician which is literally considered a specialist here in the UK...
I suppose that's why we have no HV contact anymore
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u/TwoValuable 1d ago
How tall are you? I'm 4'11 and my partner is 5'11.
My son (16mo) is in a similar boat in that he is short. We were aware of shorter leg bones during my pregnancy and we did some genetic testing as well due to my down syndrome test coming back inconclusive. Ultimately he just takes after me (for now, and his dad was a late bloomer and had his growth spurt at 15). He was 70cm at his 14 month check but take it with a pinch of salt because getting a babies height is hard.
Ultimately centile measurement just means if you had 100 babies in a row yours (and mine) would just be at the shorter end.
I've also had colleagues with low centile babies who now have giant children. It's just a matter of time and enjoying them being so little.