Growth and Growth Charts in Children

Abstract

Growth is a result of your child’s genetics, environment, and culture.When your children come to a well-child check, their pediatrician will measure their height and weight at each visit and head circumference when they are 3 years and younger. Not only can it be fun to see how much they have grown between visits, but these measurements also provide important information about their health and development. Growth charts can be on paper or in an electronic medical record. These charts are standardized graphs that use information from a larger population to show how your child compares with other children of the same age and sex. Pediatricians are interested in the “percentile” in which your child falls, as well as if your child is tracking along the same percentile over time. For example, if your child is on the 50% percentile, it means that on average, 50% of children of the same age and sex are bigger than your child and 50% are smaller.