Pedemy All toolsTap boy or girl and type the parents’ heights. You’ll see how tall your child may be as an adult.
This calculator estimates how tall your child may be as an adult, based on the parents' heights. It is for parents who are curious about their child's expected height or want to see if growth fits the family.
You choose boy or girl and enter the mother's and father's heights in centimeters or feet and inches. The tool uses the mid-parental height method: it averages the parents' heights and adds 13 cm for boys or subtracts 13 cm for girls. Most children end up within 8.5 cm (about 3½ inches) above or below this number. From 2 years, you can also add your child's current age and height for a second estimate. This uses the CDC 2000 height charts to find your child's current percentile and projects that curve to adult height.
If the two estimates differ by more than 8.5 cm, the tool suggests asking your child's doctor, who may follow growth over time or order a bone age X-ray. The method comes from Tanner and colleagues (Arch Dis Child 1970).
Add the mother's and father's heights, then add 13 cm for a boy or subtract 13 cm for a girl, and divide by 2. This is the mid-parental height. Most children end up within 8.5 cm (about 3½ inches) of it.
It is an estimate. Most children end up within about 8.5 cm of it, but puberty timing, nutrition and health all play a part. Children who start puberty early may look tall but finish growing sooner.
See the doctor if your child grows less than about 4 cm (1½ inches) a year after age 3 and before puberty, drops across percentile lines, or is very short or tall for the family.
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