Parents I know gymnasts are small..but

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gymmom14

Proud Parent
How big is your gymnast? My 10 year old daughter seems so small compared to everyone in her school class yet she seems average for her gymnastics team. She is about 54 inches.
 
My dd was always really tall for her age. I wonder if gymnastics does actually slow that down though. Before she did so much gymnastics she was literally off the growth chart for height - now she is in the 67th percentile (still tall but closer to average) and her weight is the 50th percentile.
 
At 6 years and 7 months:your child is 52 pounds, and that is
at the 69th percentile for weight.
your child is 49 inches, and that is
at the 83rd percentile for height.


She definitely looks older than 6. :D
 
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OK I went off the growth chart that Mariposamama posted and here is where my DD falls.

At 7 years and 4 months:


your child is 41.5 pounds, and that is
at the 5th percentile for weight. your child is 43.5 inches, and that is
at less than the 3rd percentile for height.

There is one other level 4 that is smaller than her and she is a year younger.

Barb
 
First, my oldest. Gymnastics has not slowed her growth. She has been in rec classes since age 4, and on team since 7 yrs old. Last yr alone she grew 4.5 inches.
At 11 years and 4 months:

your child is 95 pounds, and that is at the 69th percentile for weight. your child is 60 inches, and that is at the 78th percentile for height

This is what it says for Little Monkey, who was a 29 weeker preemie, birthweight of 2lbs12oz.
At 7 years and 10 months:

your child is 49 pounds, and that is at the 21st percentile for weight. your child is 47 inches, and that is at the 9th percentile for height.
 
Growth information

My child has been consistently just below the 25th percentile curve on the CDC growth charts during her eight years in gymnastics, and I suppose she's fairly typical for her team. (Her smallest and most talented teammate quit the sport to play basketball.)





For those who might happen to be interested:
  • Collegiate and elite gymnasts certainly tend to be small, but they may not be as tiny as you'd think:
  • The two NCAA teams near my home feature gymnasts who range in height from 4-11 to 5-10; these gymnasts average around 5 feet 3 inches.
  • Elite gymnasts (or perhaps those on top NCAA teams--often former elites) might tend to be smaller than that group of collegiate gymnasts, but it's also true that the many of the elites haven't reached adult height; in particular, whether it's due to actual selection for small stature or due to rigorous training, female gymnasts who train long hours may have both a reduction in growth potential and be rather late in achieving full adult height (their skeletal age tends to be a couple of years behind their chronological age). They may experience catch-up growth after they retire. (For example, if you see Carly Patterson listed as 5-0, that was her height when she last competed, not her adult height.)
  • It takes a lot of training to produce much of a growth effect: Adolescents who train 15 or fewer hours per week don't typically show menstrual disturbances or delays in entering puberty, but 18 hours of athletic training each week is capable of attenuating growth.
  • Good references include:
Georgopoulos, NA, et al. 2004. Growth and skeletal maturation in male and female artistic gymnasts. J Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 89(9):4377-4382
Theodoropoulos A, et al. 2005. Delayed but normally progressed puberty is more pronounced in artistic compared with rhythmic elite gymnasts due to the intensity of training. J Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 90(11):6022-6027

  • Here's a link to the CDC growth chart:
 
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Thanks for all the good info rbw. I know lots of college gymnasts who are on the taller side. I thought I had read somewhere that the average height of an Olympic gymnast was about 4'10". I don't worry about the growth thing. My pediatrician said my dd will most likely be about 5'8" - so even if it did stunt it a little she would still be tall enough, lol. My dd never had any elite aspirations so her height never was a factor - aside from her long legs making certain things harder to do.
 
My just turned 7 year old is 46 1/2 in. Thats in the 25%. She has remained at the 25% since birth. I don't know her weight since we don't have a scale.

Canadiangymmom: How tall are you?
 
I thought I had read somewhere that the average height of an Olympic gymnast was about 4'10". I don't worry about the growth thing. My pediatrician said my dd will most likely be about 5'8". . . .

I don't know much about the average height of Olympic gymnasts, but I happen to have found the listed heights of 80% of the female gymnasts at the 2004 games; they averaged 60 inches tall. That is pretty small: roughly the 5th percentile for growth.

Remember, though, that many of those gymnasts were young (40% of girls with listed heights were 16 or 17 years old), so many of them would continue to grow a bit--especially since elite female gymnasts show significant growth delays. The CDC growth charts indicate that height normally continues to increase until at least 20 years of age, where the chart ends. Who knows, on average that group may have reached, say, 5-1 at full growth (!)

BTW, the range I found was from 54 inches all the way up to 67 inches--almost as tall as your daughter will be. The tallest athlete listed, Isabelle Severino, clearly demonstrated that you don't have to be tiny to succeed in women's AG: She medaled at several European and World Championships, and she likely would have returned to compete in her third Olympics had she not torn her Achilles last month.
 
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At 12 years and 8 months:
your child is 88 pounds, and that is
at the 28th percentile for weight. your child is 58 inches, and that is
at the 12nd percentile for height.

Beetle is the second smallest on the optional team. The smaller girl is over a year younger than her.
 
I did the ht predictor and Little Monkey will be 5'4" while big DD will "only" be 5'6" which I find interesting considering that she's always been on the tall side. Same predictor says my son (Little Monkey's twin brother) will be 6'
 
Here's my little one's stats:

At 6 years and 3 months:

your child is 41 pounds, and that is
at the 20th percentile for weight. your child is 42 inches, and that is
at less than the 3rd percentile for height.

The height predictor said she would be 4'11.

I don't know how accurate it is because I had to make a guess for her birth parent's height (she's Chinese).

My boys all got into the height predictor. I have one son (he's 17), who is already 6'6, so it predicted he would remain at 6'6 (thank goodness!). The other boys were 5'11, 6'1, and 5'11. The 2 predicted at 5'11 were not happy! They want to be like their big brother:). I guess time will tell how accurate this height predictor chart is! I was told by the pediatrician when my oldest was 2 years old that he would be 6'7---he almost nailed it, and who knows, he might grow one more inch.
 
My dd at 8 yr 3mon weight 59lb 52% height 49 inch 20% adult height 5'3" ,But I think she looks like she will be taller
 
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yet another little one

At 7 years and 10 months:

your child is 46 pounds, and that is
at the 10th percentile for weight.

your child is 46 inches, and that is
at the 3rd percentile for height.
 
My muscular, leggy, 11 year old gymnast comes out at 10th percentile for weight (69.5 pounds) and 12th percentile for height (55 inches).

Her Physio said that she would be likely to grow quite quickly now that she has dropped her hours so much.

Here is another website http://doigrowwell.com which is interesting as you can put in earlier dates and weights/heights and see what they look like on the graph. My DD's are exactly where they should be on the curve of the graph so I wonder if her Physio is right about the additional exercise having delayed her growth - surely this would be evident on the graph?

 
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Bigger baby bog is 11 years and 9 months, weighs 90 pounds and is 60 inches tall (5 feet) She is on the 50% for both height and weight. Square as our pediatrician calls it!:D

She was always the little on in the gym until this year, she is growing as we watch. Glad it's summer or I'd be buying her new jeans every month!

Little Baby Bog
is 9 years and 2 months, weighs 65 pounds and is 48 inches tall (4 feet) is on the 50% for weight and the 3rd for height (weird she's not a midget in her class)

She is very solid, tons of muscle on her and she loves to eat like a newborn, every hour on the hour!
 

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