The Girl Who Grew Too Little

If you saw my post on Everly's growth a few posts back, you'll remember that she was tiny. Now she's always been tiny so it wasn't all that shocking to me that she was still tiny. The doctor was a bit concerned though and so we scheduled a followup height check for one month later.

This whole past month, Everly's height has always been on my mind. I wasn't worried that she was short but I was worried that the doctor would think it was enough to warrant tests or medication. The doctors had tried to get my mom to do that with me and I'm ever so glad that she decided not too. I didn't want to deal with that mess with Everly.

The big day came and I went to the doctor with Everly (and Verity in the carrier because naturally she goes where I go). We get called back immediately (must have been a light morning) and get Everly measured. Everly had grown 1/4 an inch in one month. Now by growth standards that's really not all that bad but it still meant she was short. The nurse got my height and Justin's height again so the doctor could compare to what Everly is. At that point, my mama mind starts to worry. Then I hear the doctor wants to double check with another pediatrician…more worry. Next, the nurse comes back in and says she wants to measure Everly laying down.

You see normally they measure babies and toddlers laying down. When they are young their bones compress (or maybe it's their bodies..something to do with bones and bodies…) and they really aren't good at standing up straight, so measuring them laying down gets a more accurate reading. Now when we first took Everly in last month, we measured her standing up. This was partially because she's a bit over 2 years old now and because she didn't want to be measured so it was easier to get her to be measured standing up (like her brothers showed her) than laying down.

Neither the nurse nor I thought about the effects that would cause.

You see, when we finally measured Everly laying down she grew…2 inches!!! Yeah, there's no way she actually grew 2 inches in 5 minutes so apparently when she stands up she compresses 2 inches! Holy Moley!

Needless to say we were all pleasantly surprised. We plugged in her new height of 35 inches and lo and behold she shot up in percentiles. Instead of being in the 2%, she was in the 22%!!! Right where she's always been and should be.

Moral of this story? If you have a toddler who is under the age of 3, make sure to have them measured laying down! If you suddenly have a height concern when your child is measured standing up for the first time, have them do another measurement with them laying down! We could have avoided so much stress and worry if we had just measured Everly correctly the first time!