Iis likely that he still has some growth in height left, in spite of a wrist that is no longer growing. If your son is more in the middle of puberty. Testosterone, which is the major hormone in boys, promotes growth as well as maturation of bone, eventually causing the growth plates to fuse.įor boys, the growth spurt occurs fairly late in puberty, after there is already a fair amount of pubic hair and the penis and testes have enlarged to almost their full size. The main factor that determines when the growth plates fuse is the rise in various hormones that takes place with puberty. Most boys don't stop growing until about age 17. However, 14 would be quite early for a boy to stop growing unless he has gone through puberty early. The usual progression of fusion of growth plates is elbow first, then foot and ankle, then hand and wrist, then knee, then hip and pelvis, and last the shoulder and clavicle. The growth plates in the knees generally close at about the same time as the ones in the wrist. That said, hand and wrist X-rays are a standard use as a predictor of skeletal maturity in children, so it may be that your son has finished growing. You wouldn't know for sure unless you looked at an X-ray of the legs. It is quite possible that the small bones in the wrist have closed while the growth plates in the legs are still open, and that would allow for continued increases in height. Height will be determined primarily by the growth in the bones of the legs and the spine at this time. Some bones, like the small bones of the wrist and feet, might fuse while other bones in the body still have open growth plates. While it is true that once a growth plate has fused there will be no lengthening of that bone, not all the growth plates in the body fuse at the same time. The insensitivity issue aside, is it a medical certainty that because the growth plate in one wrist has fused he will grow no taller?Ī: Predicting growth can be a little tricky. This prompted the orthopedist to tell my son that he had reached his full stature at 5'7" tall. An X-ray revealed not only the fracture, but a lack of growth plates in the wrist. Q: My 14-year-old son recently fractured his middle finger. Ask an Expert: How to Know When Your Child Has Stopped Growing? Puberty is a confusing time, so we answer all your questions about growth plates, puberty and height with input from Shari Nethersole, a physician at Children's Hospital, Boston, and an instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. As soon as you buy them new shoes or jeans, it’s time for another size up.īut how tall will your child grow to be? And what happens if your child injures or fractures one of their growth plates? Teenage growth spurts often happen so quickly, it’s hard to believe.
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