Can you predict how tall a child will be?

Interesting. I've read that a child is exactly half their height at age two. Is this accurate?

Hello Amy,

That is a good question.

A child's adult height is influenced by a number of factors, including genetics, sex, and overall health and nutrition. Genetics and the child's gender account for 70% of what goes into deciding how tall a child will be. The other 30% comes from environmental factors, such as nutrition, exercise, and any underlying health problems.

Pediatrician rely on a reference entitled Radiographic Atlas of Skeletal Development of the Hand and Wrist written by Greulich and Pyle.

A reasonable good estimate of a youngster's height at maturity can be made knowing the child's bone age and chronological age.

Another approach is based on the fact that most healthy children will grow to a height that is somewhere between their mother's and father's heights.

This method predicts adult height by adding the parents' heights together, dividing by two, then adding three inches for a boy (or subtracting three for a girl). While this method is fairly accurate, the child's ultimate height can vary by as much as five inches above or below this calculation.

Regards,
Maryann