Parents really have the right idea here. These measurements will become a good indicator of the baby’s overall health, especially during the first three years. Physicians too are well aware of this close relationship. Infants who are well nourished nutritionally, receive emotional bonding from their parents, and have not developed a chronic medical problem will grow following a regular pattern.

Pediatricians and family physicians use a growth chart to keep track of a child’s progress. As all of us realize, there is a wide variation in the height and weight of "normal" children. Growth charts were developed from information obtained by measuring and weighing thousands of children. From these numbers the national average for weight and height for each age and sex were established and plotted forming a curved line. This became the 50^th percentile curve, meaning in a sample of 1,000 boys or girls, 500 would be above the curve and 500 would be below. Then other curves were established representing the 10^th, 25^th, 75^th, and 90^th percentiles. By definition, 100 out of one thousand normal children will be at the 10^th percentile. Another way of looking at it is that a child whose height fell on the 10^th percentile would be taller than 100 and shorter than 900 children of the same age and sex.

Parents often focus their attention on where a child’s growth is plotted on the chart. This may be particularly concerning to a parent if the measurement falls below the 50^th percentile. Does this mean that their daughter will not make the dean’s list or their son will be too short to play basketball? Absolutely not! As long as the child is consistently in the normal range (between the 10^th and 90^th percentile) and stays in that range on multiple well child visits, everything is fine. Physicians become concerned when the child repeatedly falls below the lower limits for weight or height, or above the upper limits for weight. What is important is that the child gets on a steady percentile line and stays there. For example, a physician might worry if at a six-month-old baby was in the 75^th percentile and at nine months was in the 25^th percentile and then at 16 months was below the 10^th percentile.

Another measurement performed during well checkups is the head circumference. Like height and weight, head circumference is carefully recorded and plotted on its own chart. Pediatricians become concerned when the head is growing too slowly or too quickly on repeated measurements. This measurement is also adjusted for babies born prematurely.

It is important to emphasize again that parents not focus their attention on an isolated entry in their youngster’s growth chart. Measurement errors do occur - the squirming infant on a baby scale may be difficult to weigh, a toddler recovering from a bout of diarrhea may seem to have dropped weight percentiles, or the slouching adolescent being measured during a sports physical. The growth trends over successive visits are more accurate and provide parents and physicians with important information about a child’s health.

The growth charts on our site are the latest pediatric growth charts issued by the Center for Disease Control (May, 2006). The World Health Organization (WHO) released a new international growth standard statistical distribution in 2006, which describes the growth of children ages 0 to 59 months living in environments believed to support what WHO researchers view as optimal growth of children in six countries throughout the world, including the U.S. The distribution shows how infants and young children grow under these conditions, rather than how they grow in environments that may not support optimal growth.

Children with Turner Syndrome
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Children with Cerebral Palsy
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As a reminder, this information should not be relied on as medical advice and is not intended to replace the advice of your child’s pediatrician. Please read our full disclaimer.