Height

While predicting Jimmy’s height is hardly an exact science, the height of the parents and prevailing trends in both families can provide some insight. If everybody in your family is under five feet tall, it’s unlikely that he’ll play in the NBA. But some kids of tall parents are unusually small and vice versa.

When a child is unusually small, parents sometimes worry about a hormonal deficiency. This is extremely rare and can be ruled out with a simple X ray of the wrist to evaluate the “bone age.” If that test is normal, a growth-hormone deficiency is extremely unlikely. Extensive athletic training has also, at times, been implicated in stunting a child’s growth, but the link isn’t clear. In the vast majority of cases, the best bet is to wait and see.