OP ignore this reaction. I am fully on board with any reasonable human enhancement medical science allows. If both you and the kid think being a bit taller would be more ideal, than have at it.
I have what is considered a decent height, about 6 feet even, and in the gay world where I live height is not as big a deal as it’s not seen as some great deterrent or something that puts guys off, but for women? Phew, you all are cut throat. I have seen super good looking guys get turned down like they were the crypt keeper because they were shorter than their preferences. I think it’s something primal in women, so yes, if he is headed to being shorter than what you think ideal and wants to change that, so be it. I see nothing wrong with it.
This idea that we ought to be bound by natures lottery is ridiculous. One of the PERKS of being a human being is that we can reshape nature to our whims. Become like Gods, to give all that up for some false sense of superiority for letting the chips fall where they may is not reasonable at all. Especially coming from people who rolled top scores in the dice of life.
I’m with you, Doctor Moreau— that’s why I’m buying my six-year-old niece the surgery she wants for her birthday. Those double-D knockers are gonna make her the star of her Brownie troop.
I will. We have to wait a while to get in for an appointment. We can’t get in ASAP for us, and we have a planned trip in early July, so it’s going to have to be after we get back. Obviously the doctor does not consider this urgent, so I am trying not to worry.
As far as the other questions you asked about his development-- I don’t have any other ten year old boys to compare him to, but my husband says he’s “developing,” and so does the doctor. I’m a little in the dark as to exactly what they mean. Since we have a sit-down coming up after we get more information, I guess I’ll eventually have to ask.
I know his body shape has changed dramatically. He used to be just a little chubby, and have some breast tissue that worried me a bit. That totally disappeared almost overnight, and in a couple of months his shoulders got very broad; literally, shirts we had bought him just three months earlier were too tight. He is slender now, and wears adult medium T-shirts.
Or for an endo appointment? If the latter getting the X-ray done ahead of time would be advisable. The x-ray should be easily scheduled or even just walk in with the order entered in the computer easy.
For everything. For the bloodwork to be done, for getting the x-ray read by the right person. If “endo” is “endocrinologist,” yes.
I have a cousin who is a orthopedist. She doesn’t normally do stuff like this (she fixes broken bones, and treats children with CP and other issues), but she agreed to look at the x-rays as well.
Also, this trip could be the last time our son sees my mother. Probably not. She has cancer, and has been doing very well, but had a minor setback. The prognosis is still good, but she is 77. We want him to enjoy the visit, and not talk about his medical issues and worry her. So we want to put off the sit-down until after the trip.
I think interfering with your son’s natural growth isn’t the right move. I think you should let it be because yes, height does play a slightly important role in life, more so a man’s than a woman’s, but nearly everyone eventually gets to a point in their life where they are content with themselves.
I know you want the best life possible for your son, but somethings you just have to let happen. I think he will turn out fine, and even if he doesn’t grow anymore, or grows freakishly tall, he’ll still be fine.
As someone who has been through the x-rays, the mother who was neurotic about height, etc… I would like to remind you that all estimates about future height based on a child’s measurements are just guesses.
I went through all that crap as a kid and I still came out 8 inches taller than expected.
I have three sons who had three totally different growth curves, but they all ended up about the same height. My middle son was annoyed when his younger brother got taller than he was, but his only worry was that he’d, maybe, end up shorter than me. Once he was taller than his mother, he was happy. He got his last inch of height when he was 25.
Projections from when they were young put my sons at three different heights, but they ended up exactly the same, they just stopped growing at different ages. Don’t bother worrying about final height. Just watch for symptoms that should be addressed. And you’re going to be doing that anyway.
(Youngest son had a summer in junior high where he grew a full foot. The odd thing - his feet and nose grew first.)
Agreed. I really don’t get all the fuss. I’m 5’7", I have a sister who is 5’8" and my brothers are 6’2" and 6’5". At most there’s some mild family teasing (I told my little brother he had to get so tall so people wouldn’t see that he was going bald, he calls my his little big brother etc). But overall it hasn’t changed our lives in any way more than our hair or eye color does.
I’d just like to make it clear that I didn’t bring any of this up. His doctor was the one who noticed that he looked like he was going into puberty early, and his earlier doctor was the one who estimated his height, without us asking. We never noticed he was unusually tall, because he’s an only child. I mean, we can see it now that he’s in public school, but we didn’t notice in preschool, because he was the youngest in his class.
His earlier doctor only mentioned in because he was very thin as well as tall, and she said if he was going to end up being unusually tall, we’d better get used to the idea of watching that he ate enough. So we do things like buy whole milk for him, and skim for ourselves.
Then his current doctor brought it up because he said he just thought we should be aware, and gave us a pamphlet on puberty. He was the one who mentioned that puberty could be postponed if we were concerned, so naturally, we asked if there were risks associated with early puberty.
My brothers are both 6’6". It is little awkward for them being so tall. Sometimes it’s hard to find clothes, or fit into small cars and airline seats. Overall, they both quite like it however. The clothes thing is probably not as much of an issue in the US (my brothers order clothes from the US when they can’t find something locally).
Personally, I wouldn’t involve my kid too much in the decision. I’d talk about it a bit to explain what is going on, and see what kind of concerns he has, but I think the parents should make the decision in conjunction with his doctor, taking his preferences into account. It’s really hard for a 12yr old to imagine what it might be like to be different heights, and you can’t really guarantee the result anyway, so I wouldn’t want to put him in the position of feeling he has to make a decision he doesn’t understand and can’t control. Whatever height he ends up with is probably fine anyway. It’s probably not a huge determiner of his life outcomes. I’d be careful about putting it into his head that he might be the ‘wrong’ height.
