Growth Charts Flashcards
Why is growth in children measured?
Growth is an index or health and wellbeing
Abnormalities of growth and weight gain are associated with illness, syndromes and under or over nutrition
How are growth charts produced?
From a series of cross sectional samples of measurements from children at different ages growth charts are mathematically constructed by ‘joining the dots’ between key points at different ages
The centile lines on the chart are a measure of standard deviation from the median growth
How do you determine which centile a child’s growth is in?
A child is in a centile if they are within a quarter space of the centile line. If not they are between two centiles
When should gestational correction be made on a growth chart?
When the child was born preterm (before 37 weeks)
What is the 1991 WHO growth chart based on?
Healthy breast fed infants to demonstrate how healthy children should grow
It is common for weight to dip slightly in pre-school years due to illness. Within how many weeks should this have recovered?
2-3 weeks
Children in which centiles of a growth chart would be considered to have ‘normal’ growth?
Within the outer two centile lines i.e. between the 0.4th and 99.6th centiles
How is the child’s adult height estimated?
By the mid parental height
Within how many centile spaces of the mid parental line are children usually?
2 centile spaces
