Every Parent is curious to know how tall their child will be. Will he be as tall as his dad or as short as his mother? There are many ways to calculate your height. Well, the most straightforward formulas take into account the average height of both parents as a significant factor. That means the height of both parents is vital in determining the final height of the child.
Apart from the genetic makeup, the other factors that determine how tall you become include exercises, nutrition, and habits that develop as you grow up. For example, taking prohibited drugs and alcoholism can affect how your body absorbs nutrients, and you cannot achieve the optimal height.
However, if all factors are ideal, you can easily predict your height or that of your child through various scientifically backed methods.
The methods that you can use to calculate your height include:
- The gray method is one of the simplest, and it involves
1. Adding the height of both parents together, adjusting for the gender of the child and finding the average. The margin of error with Gray’s method is +/-4.
- One of the common variations of the method is getting the average height of the parents and Adding 3 or 5 or subtracting 3 or 5 for the male and girl child, respectively.
- Adding or subtracting 3 or 5 is the range within which the final height of the child will be. For some people, the range is quite significant, but it also indicates how difficult it is to get accurate measurements.
- You can as well use the child’s height to estimate their adult height. However, the method varies between genders.
To go about it,
- Double the height of the male child when he is two years old. For the girl child, you double their height when they are 18 months old.
- Like the above method, the margin of error is +/- 4 inches.
- Another popular method, and which is relatively accurate is the Khamis-Roche Method. You will mostly find it on most websites, and you only need to input the figures to get the estimated adult height. It is recommended for children that are above four years.
Typically, the Khamis-Roche Method utilizes a complex scaling of equations that incorporates various factors such as
- The height of the parents
- Sex of the child
- Age of the child
- weight, and
- Height.
You can flex your math skills, but it is easier to get it from a website. Let a website do the heavy lifting for you. The margin of error is only 2 inches.
- The bone age method is not quite popular, but it can be quite efficient. The technique that has been updated severally, and involves taking X-ray of the child’s left hand, fingers, wrist, and palm. The results are then compared to the chronological age.
Conclusion
The height of both parents, the age of the child, and other factors such as gender are the main determinants of adult height. However, other factors such as nutrition and activity level can affect height growth, and they may not reach their height potential. Diseases and conditions can also stand in the way, and it is always good to consult a physician if you suspect that your child is dragging behind in terms of height growth.