My son was on the 90th centile on the growth chart at birth but was off the chart altogether (below the 0.4th centile) by the time he was a year old.  He barely grew at all in the first year, was very sickly and also failed to gain much weight.  He caught up a bit in the next few years and although was still one of the smallest in the class by the time he started school, was not too far out of the way.  He caught up during puberty and at 16 now stands at about 5ft 8" tall, but has a delayed bone age, so we still expect another few inches before he reaches final height.  (I am 5ft 4" - his father is 5ft 9"). 

I do think it is sometimes difficult to get the medication ’fine tuned’ in the first year or so of life and feel my son was overtreated.  However, it seems his height was ’delayed’ rather than ’lost’, so no real harm was done (apart from all the worry it caused me!!!).  Don’t therefore feel, that just because growth isn’t too good initially, it will mean that your child will end up a short adult.  It looks as if my son will be taller than his father, which is more than we could hope for, especially considering his rocky start!