Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Children’s height vs. Parents’ Heights




        Do children tend to be about the same height as their parents or at least inherit the height of one of them? That’s a question many of us might have asked ourselves throughout our lifetime. The typical question every time one goes to the doctor as a child is “how tall are you?” Height has always played a major role in ones life as it did in school for example. Remember the taller students usually had to stand in the back of the class picture and the shorter students in the front row.
        The truth is, though parents’ genes influence the height of a child tremendously, the height outcome of children in many families vary. Other environmental factors like nutrition play a huge role on the resulting height of a child along with the genes inherited as mentioned in the New York Times article. However, though results vary from family to family, doctors today use a formula to calculate the height outcome of most children as adults. Yet, the formulas for boys and girls differ.
      However, say there is a family of two parents and three children of the same sex, though all three children have the same parents and the same sex it does not necessarily mean they will have the same height. I was really amused about the fact that younger children in a family tend to be shorter and grow slower. This article reminded me how important it is for us to do our best at acquiring a solid nutrition. It is so important for us to realize how much environmental factors influence our life and how they have influenced our genes!

2 comments:

  1. This is very interesting. However, personally I am 5'10" while my parents are 5'8" and 5'4" and my older sister is 5'4". In my experience this is hard to believe. My parents and I have always thought the height skipped a generaion (my grandpa is tall). Though, this is very interesting to see that parent's height greatly influences height of offspring.

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  2. I always wondered why I was the tallest one in my family! My sisters come in at 5'4" each and my mother 5'6" where as my father and I are both 5'7". Also, does age a person begins to wither factor into this? My mothers father is as tall as he ever was and he is 89 but my father at age 58 is now beginning to shrink already. A recent back to back measurement left him disappointed at his lacking height. Another factor to consider is my grandfathers bar tending job compared to my fathers very strenuous elevator construction job. More research needed!

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