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How To Read A Growth Chart - Percentiles Explained
How To Read A Growth Chart - Percentiles Explained
org/English/health-
issues/conditions) > Glands & Growth (https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/Glands-Growth-Disorders) > How to Read a Growth Chart:
Percentiles Explained
HEALTH ISSUES
After age 2, you can use the growth chart to expand between the ages of 2 and 20. In addition to weight and height at
that point, we also look at body mass index (/English/health-issues/conditions/obesity/Pages/Body-Mass-Index-
Formula.aspx), that number where we try to capture how children's proportionality is. Are they at risk for overweight
(/English/ages-stages/preschool/nutrition-fitness/Pages/Is-Your-Preschooler-Overweight.aspx)or are they too lean?
As you follow the grid along from infancy into toddlerhood, you'll notice that each time it will rise. Each data point at
each set of time will increase. We care about the rate at which your baby or child grows, not the number.
Parents, pediatricians, and nurses have been using growth charts since the late 1970s to track growth in infants and
children. The charts were revised back in 2000 as data for the first charts (from a small study in Ohio) didn't
accurately reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of our communities.
If your doctor doesn't have a computer in the examination room, ask to see the chart on paper or on a computer in the
office. It will not only inform you, I suspect it will delight you to see what your child has done since the last time he
was seen. The human body really is a fine-tuned machine, and growth is simply astounding if you really stop to think
of it. It's true your baby will at least double his weight by 6 months and triple it by about 1 year of age.