Growth chart
Encyclopedia
A growth chart is used by pediatricians
and other health care providers to follow a child's growth over time. Growth charts have been constructed by observing the growth of large numbers of normal children over time. The height
, weight
, and head circumference of a child can be compared to the expected parameters of children of the same age and sex to determine whether the child is growing appropriately. Growth charts can also be used to predict the expected adult height and weight of a child because, in general, children maintain a fairly constant growth curve. When a child deviates from his or her previously established growth curve, investigation into the cause is generally warranted. For instance, a decrease in the growth velocity may indicate the onset of a chronic illness such as inflammatory bowel disease
.
Growth charts can also be compiled with a portion of the population deemed to have been raised in more or less ideal environments, such as nutrition that conforms to pediatric guidelines, and no maternal smoking. Charts from these sources end up with slightly taller but thinner averages http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/Technical_report.pdf.
Growth charts are different for boys and girls, due in part to pubertal differences and disparity in final adult height. In addition, children with diseases such as Down syndrome
and Turner syndrome
follow distinct growth curves which deviate significantly from normal children. As such, growth charts have been created to describe the expected growth patterns of several genetic diseases.
Since there are differences in normal growth rates between breastfed and formula-fed babieshttp://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/96/3/497, the World Health Organization growth charts, which better reflect the growth pattern of the healthy, breastfed infant are considered the standard for U.S. children under age 2 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr5909.pdf.
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
and other health care providers to follow a child's growth over time. Growth charts have been constructed by observing the growth of large numbers of normal children over time. The height
Human height
Human height is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head in a human body standing erect.When populations share genetic background and environmental factors, average height is frequently characteristic within the group...
, weight
Weight
In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity. Its magnitude , often denoted by an italic letter W, is the product of the mass m of the object and the magnitude of the local gravitational acceleration g; thus:...
, and head circumference of a child can be compared to the expected parameters of children of the same age and sex to determine whether the child is growing appropriately. Growth charts can also be used to predict the expected adult height and weight of a child because, in general, children maintain a fairly constant growth curve. When a child deviates from his or her previously established growth curve, investigation into the cause is generally warranted. For instance, a decrease in the growth velocity may indicate the onset of a chronic illness such as inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel disease
In medicine, inflammatory bowel disease is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. The major types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.-Classification:...
.
Growth charts can also be compiled with a portion of the population deemed to have been raised in more or less ideal environments, such as nutrition that conforms to pediatric guidelines, and no maternal smoking. Charts from these sources end up with slightly taller but thinner averages http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/Technical_report.pdf.
Growth charts are different for boys and girls, due in part to pubertal differences and disparity in final adult height. In addition, children with diseases such as Down syndrome
Down syndrome
Down syndrome, or Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. The condition was clinically described earlier in the 19th...
and Turner syndrome
Turner syndrome
Turner syndrome or Ullrich-Turner syndrome encompasses several conditions in human females, of which monosomy X is most common. It is a chromosomal abnormality in which all or part of one of the sex chromosomes is absent...
follow distinct growth curves which deviate significantly from normal children. As such, growth charts have been created to describe the expected growth patterns of several genetic diseases.
Since there are differences in normal growth rates between breastfed and formula-fed babieshttp://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/96/3/497, the World Health Organization growth charts, which better reflect the growth pattern of the healthy, breastfed infant are considered the standard for U.S. children under age 2 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr5909.pdf.