How old was your DD when she hit her growth spurt or did the most growing?

[Iwannabemargo]

It's really easy to talk about weighing and measuring and molding girls body types until you actually know someone who's had a bad eating disorder.

No-one mentioned moulding body types - infact imho its much better to spot girls not putting on weight ( those who have issues are infact very good at hiding their weight loss until it becomes serious) - no-one in the gym has ever been critisized for being overweight, however there are a couple of parents we are keeping an eye on as they send negative images to their children (always on diets, worried about looks etc). I know that the coach has refused to train girls who have turned up for sessions with no food or drink and even taken them to the shop and bought them food herself!

Maybe it does very much depend where you are, we are a small rural club with long-time members (most have been there forever) - no-one seems to take issue with taking your children to be weighed and measure annually at the doctors ? Is the context the problem ? Just curious, maybe we are just more laid back about things here ?

 

[bribri514]

No-one mentioned moulding body types - infact imho its much better to spot girls not putting on weight ( those who have issues are infact very good at hiding their weight loss until it becomes serious) - no-one in the gym has ever been critisized for being overweight, however there are a couple of parents we are keeping an eye on as they send negative images to their children (always on diets, worried about looks etc). I know that the coach has refused to train girls who have turned up for sessions with no food or drink and even taken them to the shop and bought them food herself!

Maybe it does very much depend where you are, we are a small rural club with long-time members (most have been there forever) - no-one seems to take issue with taking your children to be weighed and measure annually at the doctors ? Is the context the problem ? Just curious, maybe we are just more laid back about things here ?

(Please don't take any of this personally, I'm sure your coaches and gym are really supportive and encourage healthy habits. I'm not trying to say your gym is setting all the girls up for eating disorders and is the sole cause. I just want to share my personal experiences that make me question whether that makes a difference.)

I just think it's really difficult to draw the line. While your team isn't supporting girls dieting and not eating and losing weight (which is really great!) you're still measuring them. Maybe with the younger girls they won't get it, but as an older girl I know I'd have really struggled, especially when I was 13 and 14. I didn't hit 5 feet until the end of high school after I stopped competitive gym for 2 years. That height combined with puberty made every pound I gained show. Of course I was training L 10 this whole time so I know now it was all muscle, but I didn't feel that way at the time. My mom has my body type, has never dieted in her life (I don't think?) and is super active and healthy with skiing and biking and kayaking and everything else. We were never told anything at all about our body size. I ended up a gymnast and my sister is a competitive ballet dancer. I had minor body image issues as a teenager, I know my sister has struggled with them a lot worse.

And I'm from a very rural mountain town and have to drive over a 12,000 ft above sea level pass to get to my gym (not a single USAG gym in my county which is the size of some small states almost), which was in another small mountain town. It wasn't a big club gym it was run through the town recreation district and I trained there from the age of 5 until I was 18 and when I'm home I still go back to volunteer coach. So I feel you on gyms in small rural places being different than gyms in big towns in some respects, but that has nothing to do with girls and body image issues.

I'm not saying at all that what your gym does will make all the girls anorexic or bulimic in 5 years. I'm just saying is by the time girls are teenagers it's hard enough to deal with body image issues, we're bombarded by them in the media. The competitive perfectionist attitude that makes gymnast successful only makes this 100 times worse! There's no reason at all to toy with that regardless of your goals being really positive (the road to hell is paved with the best intentions right?) In my opinion getting measured in front of your team in a leo (or maybe in regular clothes I don't know how it works with your team) makes girls aware of body size and makes them realize that the people around them they trust care about it- or why else would they be measuring. I know girls with EDs that are really skinny. When someone comments negatively on how skinny they are they just use this as motivation to become skinnier. No matter how positive your environment is (I'm seriously not doubting this) otherwise this alone could very likely tip the scales towards eating disorders or other body image issues in the future.

I mean all the stories say Christy Henrich got told by a single judge she'd do better if she were skinnier. That one single comment sent her into a horrific 5 year battle with anorexia that her supportive family, friends and doctors couldn't help her with and eventually took her life. That's not a risk I'd be willing to take with my niece, sister, friend or future children that's for sure.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

I abosolutely undestand your comments - its possibly a cultural difference. I don't know of Christy Henrich, but we have all seen the effects that negative comments can have on children especially in the sensitive teenage years - thats where I think gym is really good for the girls as it gives them self confidence - I know my daughter was scared of life until she started gym and now she is much more confident in school as she took in a video of her grading and the head showed it to the whole school in assembly - my son even got the reflected glory " wow your sister is sooooooooooooo good !" lol

reseach has shown that those likely to suffer eating disorders, compulsions, adddictions etc will do so - external trigger factors are just that, not causes but triggers - as you said one out of place comment by anyone can be a trigger - but the complusion was there all along.

Oh any any measuring is done in private, not infront of anyone else.

 

[MaryA]

Kathy has been in the 25th percentile for height and weight, pretty much since birth. She's on track to be about 5'3"-5'4". At 10.5 I see some of her friends starting to develop, but neither her nor her (fraternal) twin sister (who has always been a bit taller and has a completely different body type... definitely more "willowy" than my solid little gymnast) are looking anywhere near puberty. I know it has been debated on this site whether the hours that a "normal" gymnast (as opposed to elite/olympic-bound) practices can delay puberty or not, but my hope is that Kathy's gymnastics and Tory's dance will delay their puberty until they're... maybe 18 or so? Maybe, just maybe, I'll be ready to deal with it by then. I don't feel anywhere near ready to deal with it yet! :scared:

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

Several years ago, one of my DD's teammates had a sister who was a competitive figure skater... she was nationally ranked, so she was GOOD!!! At any rate, one of her coaches told her at a clinic, that "fat girls can't jump." That was all it took. I think I realized she had developed an eating disorder before her mom even knew it. The girl knew the calorie count and nutritional content of every fast food item!!! If I came in carrying a McDonalds bag, she would just go off on how gross and disgusting fast food is!! She constantly criticized the food everyone brought in.. At any rate, the girl dropped down to 80 lbs. and was finally committed to an in=house rehabilitation center for women/girls w/eating disorders. This was 3-4 years ago. The girl is STILL struggling with maintaining a healthy weight.

 

[CoachTodd]

Mine is 4'11" stretching and she's almost 17 years old. She never really grew much in spurts but neither did I nor my wife. Neither of my daughters had any real growth spurts but I'm the tall one in my family at 5'4".

 

[DbacksMom75]

Here is my dd's results! She is a little midgie compared to other kids her age...and this was after a huge growth spurt over the summer. Last season the coaches had to carry her birth certificate to prove to judges she was actually 9 years old! Everyone always assumes she's 6 or 7. She is still in a 6X/7 and wears a size 2 kids shoe! I am only 5'1 so she may have gotten stuck with my genes

At 10 years:your child is 68 pounds, and that is
at the 36th percentile for weight.
your child is 48 inches, and that is
at less than the 3rd percentile for height.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

Growth spurts, what are those? My daughter (11) only grows about 2" a year. She just had her physical and her pediatrician was very happy that she had grown that much. Right now she's 4'3" and 62 lbs of solid muscle. She's no where near puberty physically (though emotionally she's getting a lot closer). I'm hoping she's got 3-4 more years before she's done growing so she gets close to 5'!

This is EXACTLY Little Monkey - turned 11 in July, same stats for height/weight.
My older DD who competed Levels 4 to 8 between ages 8-13 grew 4 inches PER YEAR till she hit 5'5". She is now 14.5 yrs, 5'6" and about 135 lbs.
So to answer the OP, neither of my girls have ever had a growth "spurt".

 

[3rd_time_around]

"Here in the UK we don't have regular checkups as you seem to do - once a child is past baby stage thats it,"

That's me. I don't take my kids for well checks, only if they're sick. I never went for wellchecks, who has time for that any way? And why? Unless there's a problem... Anyway, my daughter grew 2 summers ago, and was clumsier and kept getting injured. SHe now seems to have leveled out, and hopefully is almost done growing.

 

[superflipgirl]

I hit my growth spurt a bit late, but I had a HUGE growth spurt. I was about 4'11 at the beginning of 7th grade(I had just turned 12) and at the beginning of 8th grade I was 5'2 but I didn't gain much weight. Then at the beginning of my freshman year I shot up to 5'4 and now I am a sophomore, 15 years old, and I'm almost 5'5. I also gained a lot of weight this past year(well not A LOT, but in a growth spurt sort of way). I seemed to grow more after I quit gymnastics......interesting. I always had sort of a gymnast-type body, but now I can't imagine myself being a high level gymnast with my height and also because I grew..........enough said lol.

 

[Mom2Gymgirls]

Okay, I'm another one with huge kids. My dd would hate the weighing in thing at gym. She's 9 and already comments on how she's heavier than most of the kids in her class at school, and I have to explain to her that she will weigh more because she's taller. She has a big frame too and is close to the top of both the height and weight charts. I'd say she's almost 4'10" and maybe 97 lbs, and she wears a women's size 7 shoe! I have 3 girls, and all of them were constantly growing and got big really early. They were always the tallest or almost the tallest in their class or grade, and then by the time the older two were 12 or 13, they were done. They matured early. My oldest is 5' 5 1/2" and my 13 year old has finally leveled out at 5'7" or 5'8". She's not quite as tall as me, and I'm 5'9". She did have one year where she grew 4 inches. That was maybe when she was 11 going on 12 or so. She'll be 14 next month and is due for her physical so I'm curious to see exactly how tall she is. Only time will tell with my youngest. She still has a couple more years of growing to go. She takes after her oldest sister though. They have the same build as their dad while my middle dd is taller and leaner like me.

 

[Flippers Mom]

Flipper will be 13 next month. She grew a lot (for her ;>) when she was out of the gym due to injury. She is below the 3rd percentile for both height and weight, but that is not surprising because she is asian. Hormones attacked her while she was out of the gym for 7 months - can't say if it was all related to reaching puberty or if being sidelined played into it. Flippers big brother has grown nearly 7 inches over the last 6 months (he just turned 15). She wants to know when that is going to happen to her LOL!

 

[eryes]

I checked out this thread because I find all this interesting. I was a very late bloomer (16) and never really hit a spurt. Whereas my sister did have a spurt and matured at a normal age (13).

But more so, it make me laugh (and proves my point to my DH) that our girls may never get out of booster seats by CT law. I finally convinced my DH that if we wait until the girls are over 60lbs (7 & 60lb law in CT), they'll be in middle school! The girls are 7 and just hit the 40lb mark.