Many parents wonder what their child is going to be like when he grows up and how tall he will be. Unfortunately, no one can tell you the exact height your little one will reach, but with some knowledge, you can make a reasonable guess.

Growth Formula

There’s a formula you can use to guesstimate your child’s height: Add your height with the father’s height in inches. Add 5 inches for a boy and subtract 5 inches for a girl. Divide the answer by 2. Your child is likely to reach a height as an adult within 4 inches of this estimate. For another guesstimate, measure your child at age 2 and double her height to determine her adult height.

Help Maximize Growth

Even though you may want your child to be tall, you can’t make it happen with nutritional supplements. His genes determine how tall he will be. However, to ensure your child reaches his potential height, provide a healthy lifestyle for him. Eating healthy foods with essential vitamins and minerals, exercising and getting plenty of rest — 10 to 12 hours a night — helps a child’s body grow in a healthy way.

Growth Chart

All kids grow at different paces, so you can’t determine whether your child will be short or tall just from comparing her to other kids at school or in the neighborhood. But your doctor can determine whether your child is growing at a normal pace by using a growth chart that measures height and weight against national norms. If your child grows according to a certain pattern and suddenly veers off that pattern and stops growing, it may indicate a health problem and should seek medical attention. Some changes in growth pattern are normal and are due to stage-related height spikes, environment, diet, as well as other factors, and don’t necessarily mean that something is wrong.

Growth Problem

If your child’s height and weight ratio is awry, there may be a problem. For example, if your child is in the 30th percentile for height but the 90th percentile for weight, indicating that he’s taller than 30 percent of kids his age but heavier than 90 percent, it may be a reason for concern and you should seek a physician’s assistance in creating a healthy lifestyle for weight reduction and fitness.

Puberty

The two-year span of puberty is generally marked by a major growth spurt. Girls usually go through puberty between 8 and 13 years of age, with boys a few years behind, going through puberty between 10 and 15 years of age. Most girls stop growing by age 15, while most boys stop around age 16 or 17.