 | ||
|
| |    What Is Normal Growth? by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. reviewed by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. A child who is healthy grows normally. For newborns, that means putting on about one ounce every day. By three months, growth is a bit slower--about two ounces every three days. At one year of age, growth slows even more, to about one ounce every other day. This slowing down of the growth rate causes many children to be less hungry at age one than they were at age 10 months. By age two or three, most children gain about a pound every two to three months (about four pounds per year). Growth stays steady or speeds up slightly until puberty. During the adolescent growth spurt, children grow faster than at any time since infancy. After that, growth pretty much stops, usually around age 15 for girls and age 17 or 18 for boys. What's normal changes from month to month, and even from day to day. It's normal for your child to grow rapidly for a week or two, then not grow at all for several days. Changes in growth rate explain why a child's appetite can vary so much from week to week. The range of normal What is normal also varies from child to child. There is no such thing as the normal weight for a child. At any given age, there is a range of weights which most children fall in between. Most pediatricians use the range of weights that covers 9 out of 10 children (90 percent) as their definition of "normal." The same thing goes for height and head size, the other two main things we measure. Take, for example, a 12-month-old baby girl. At that age, 9 out of 10 girls measure between about 27 and 31 inches long. Girls who are shorter than 27 inches or taller than 31 inches fall outside the range of normal. But that does not mean that there is anything wrong with them! Range of normal is only a way to compare one child to a group of children of the same age; it does not mean the same thing as "healthy." Changes over time What is more important than where a child's weight or height falls at any one point in time, is how that child has been growing over time. A large child who has always been at or above the normal range is probably just a healthy, large child. A small child who has always been just below the normal range is probably just small.
| |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| About Us |
Contact Us |
Our Partners Privacy Policy | Ethics | Advertising Policy | Terms of Service © Copyright 2004 The Dr. Spock Company. All Rights Reserved. THIS SITE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. The information drSpock.com
provides is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for
professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your health care
professional if you have a specific health concern. Mention or advertisement
of any product, service, or brand does not constitute endorsement, guarantee,
or recommendation by The Dr. Spock Company. Please read our full
Terms of Service. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
