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Growth Charts

Plotting your baby’s growth on a growth chart lets you ‘see’ how well they are growing over time – and shows you how they are developing.

What are growth charts?

Growth charts are a quick and easy way for both you and your doctor or nurse to track your child’s growth – providing a guide to how your baby’s health and development is progressing.

Your baby should be measured and weighed regularly so their growth can be assessed over an extended period of time. Assessing how well your baby is growing can provide valuable information on their general health and well-being, and involves taking three basic measurements:

  • Their weight
  • Their height (or length)
  • Their head circumference

These measurements will be recorded as dots on your baby’s growth charts (which can be found in their personal health record book) and can then be joined together to show your baby’s growth line.

There are a number of different types of charts, but all Australian baby record books should now be using the World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts as the standard reference for all children under 2 years of age. Once your child is over 2 years of age the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) charts are usually recommended.

These reference growth charts (WHO or CDC) represent the population as a whole. They have been created using measurements from lots of different healthy children who have been followed up and measured and weighed at different ages.

Boys and girls grow and develop at different rates so there are separate growth charts (height, weight and head circumference) for each gender.

Understanding growth charts

Growth charts can look a bit confusing at first – with lots of different lines all over the page – but it is important to understand what they mean.

The charts are marked into different ‘percentiles’ or ‘centiles’. A percentile line indicates the proportion of children in the population that are below that measurement for that particular age. For example, 45% of children are shorter than the 45 percentile on the height chart and a baby whose weight falls on the 75 percentile will be heavier than 75% of other babies (but lighter than 25%) – but both are within the typical range.

Growth charts are only guides

Growth charts act as a quick and easy guide to your child’s development – they are not diagnostic tools but help your doctor or nurse to form an overall impression of your baby’s health.

Each child is unique and their growth and development will be influenced by many things including their genetics, nutrition, health and wellness. Babies usually grow in ‘bursts’ so their growth lines may not be perfectly smooth.

Plotting your baby’s growth regularly and seeing if it follows a consistent growth curve is generally more important than which percentiles they fall in. Healthy growth is when the increase in a baby’s weight and height are mostly in proportion to each other.

Remember, growth charts are only intended as a guide and babies grow at different rates with each baby following their own growth line – some will be above average (indicated by the 50 percentile line) and some below – what’s important is that they are growing at their own consistent rate.

If you are concerned about your child’s growth, seek advice from a healthcare professional.

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