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| |    Growth Charts by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. reviewed by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P. A growth chart shows how your child compares to other children the same age, and how your child's body changes over time. The charts can look like a jumble of lines. But with a little patience, you can learn to get a lot of information from them. The growth charts that almost every doctor uses come from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The charts are based on measurements of thousands of children. The CDC just released new charts in 2000. (Read more about the new charts on the CDC's web page www.CDC.gov/growthcharts.) The CDC charts are designed to be used for healthy children from birth through 20 years, with separate charts for boys and girls and for the three main measurements: weight, height, and head size (circumference). Two other charts--weight-for-height and Body Mass Index--are especially useful in detecting growth problems. Growth-chart basics The best way to understand growth charts is to look at an example. For a copy of the infant boys growth chart, click here CDC growth charts, scroll down to "SET 2" (about halfway down), and click to download the first chart under that. You might want to print a copy now so that it will be easier to follow along. You can see that the chart has age in months across the bottom and weight in pounds on the left and right side. It also has weight in kilograms, in case you are familiar with the metric system. The charts for height and head circumference have the same basic layout. To use the weight chart, find your child's age along the bottom of the chart, then trace the line up until it crosses the line for his weight. Put an X there. (If your child is a girl, be sure to use the girl's chart!). The curved lines swooping upward are percentiles. They tell you how big a child is compared to others his age. For example, if a child's weight falls on the 75th percentile line, that means that he weighs more than 75 percent of (or three out of every four) children his age. Another way of thinking of this is if you lined up 100 children his age according to weight, chances are that he would be in, or near, the top 25. In general, any weight or height between the fifth and 95th percentile is considered to be in the range of normal. If a child falls outside the normal range, it means that she is heavier or lighter than most other children her age. It does not mean that she is abnormal in the sense of being sick! For more on reading growth charts, see Growth Charts: Beyond the Basics. A word of caution Growth charts are no help at all if you don't start out with accurate measurements. To do this, you need to have the right equipment. Most home scales aren't accurate enough to weigh small children. The easiest solution is to let your child's doctor or nurse do the weighing and measuring. They will gladly tell you the numbers. Remember, growth measurements are just one way of seeing that your child is healthy. Your sense of how your child is doing is equally important. A child who eats well and has plenty of energy and joy is probably doing well. Even though growth is important, you know that your child is much more than a series of dots on a growth chart!
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