Expert: Ryan Hale - 5/10/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hi! I am a 104 pound ,14 year old about to turn 15 in 6 months and my dad is 6'5 and my mom is 5'8 and i am 5'7. I have been dealing with an eating disorder for about two years and loss of menstrual cycle I am now trying to gain weight because i want to grow to my potential adult height. I want to be a least 5'9. i  have also recently started taking a multivitamin to get me back on track. can you give me some advice on how to gain weight, to have my menstrual cycle again, and find out my projected height and if i am going to reach it. I will surely appreciate your answers.

ANSWER: Tia-  it's great that you are in recovery from a really tough condition.  It's not easy.  As far as you potential height goes.  There are a few ways to find out.  You can have an x-ray or bone scan and have your peditrician look at your growth plates and see how much they've filled in.  It's the area of growth at the ends of your bones and looking at them can tell the Dr. how much growing there is left to do.  it's not completely accurate though.  basicvally the dr. knows about how much growth should occur there and makes a close guess (usually within about an inch).

The other way would be to go to a genetic counselor (much more expensive).  They can tell early on even when you are very little, but usually only come within about an inch as well.  There are 2 components at work: nature (genetics) and nurtutre (your environment).  That means you have your genetics but things like diet and physical health will affect your overall height.  It's like building a house.  You can have a great blueprint drawn up by the best architect but if there is a really bad storm or you build with crappy materials, the house will never get built to the potential it could have.

Usually girls are pretty much done growing by about age 15.  No always.  Guys are usually done by about age 18 or 19 but can still get taller until about 23 or 24 (but not much).

It's great that you are interested in getting healthy.  The multivit is great, you should also take a calcium supplement since there usually isn't enough calcium in a multivit or our diet.  You need to supplement with at least 1,000mg, 1,200 or more is even better given your health history.  My advice isn't going to be much different than your doctor or nutritionist:

1. make sure you are eating balanced meals, that means some carbs, protein and a bit of fat (fat is an important nutrient that helps transport and absorb other nutrients).

2. make sure you are eating throughout the day 6 to 8 small meals are a great way.  by small I mean 6-8 portions about the size of your hand or a little bigger.  3 regular meals are ok but make sure you have healthy snacks available for in between

3. don't limit fruits and veggies.  some nutritionsts have strange ideas about fruit and fruit juice but that is nature provided food that is natural and we were meant to eat it

4. when refeeding after an eating disorder, it's sometimes uncomfortable because the body has to re-learn how to handle food and how to digest it at the right pace so it can sit in your stomach for a while and make you feel a bit bloated.  To get past this, you just need to keep eating regular meals and the stomach will relearn.  So, don't quit!

5.  make sure you are supplying enough calories to meet the calorie needs for any activity you do.  You need to feed the machine, so if you are out for sports, you'll need a little extra food to fuel the energy demand.

Hope this helps.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi! I am a 104 pound ,14 year old about to turn 15 in 6 months and my dad is 6'5 and my mom is 5'8 and i am 5'7. I have been dealing with an eating disorder since i was 13 year  old and loss of menstrual cycle but, i have regained my menstrual period since January,I am now trying to gain weight because i want to grow to my potential adult height. I want to be a least 5'9. i  have also recently started taking a multivitamin to get me back on track. Can you tell if my growth (as in height) has been delayed.At 12 i was 5'6 and at 13 i was 5'6 1/2,now i'm 14 and will turn 15 in 1 month and i'm 5'7.I calculated and my adult height should be 5'9 1/2.Will i possibly grow to that and if so, how much will should i grow each six months and do you think my growth was stunted.By, the way for references i started my menstrual period at 12 almost 13. Thank you for your time.

Answer
The longer you have the eating disorder and if you have it at critical times during your development, can dictate how much of an effect it will have on your growth.  I would expect that since your parents are above average in height that you too will be as well.  However, females can often reach their full adult height by 15 or 16 so there is a chance you won't get much taller but you could still continue to gain height.  Like I said it's difficult to tell.  Since you stopped having a period for a time, it could delay things so there is also a chance that you will have another growth spurt any time now.  I cant say how much you should grow in the next year or coming years, especially broken down into 6 month intervals.  sorry