Curious about how tall your kids are going to be? Well apparently there is a mathematical trick to figuring it out.
The formula, which has been used since the 1970s and was revealed in the New York Times, predicts that ‘most (but not all) children will reach a height somewhere within a fairly small range that can be estimated by the average combined heights of their parents’.
For boys, the formula is = combine the height of both parents, add 13 centimeters (5 inches) and divide by two.
For girls, the formula is = combine the height of the parents, subtracts 13 centimeters (five inches) and divide by two.
Note that there is a more complex formula accounts for extremes in parental height.
Talking about the formula in a post for baby brand Huggies, Professor David Ravine, the Head of Medical Genetics at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR), said that genes had a 70 per cent influence on your children’s likely adult height.
“There’s a long list of genes which have an influence on our height. Typically a person’s height reflects the heights of their parents,” Professor Ravine wrote.
Ravine also said environment plays a significant role as well – roughly 30 per cent of the reason people end up being the height they finally are is due to nutrition, particularly in early childhood.
Ravine said: “Nutrition has an effect on how our body forms and grows, so at crucial growing phases in the early years our bodies need the right nutrients to fulfill long-term growth potential.”
Let us know if you try it and how it goes.
Watch: Study shows your height could make you poorer
