When we take our son or daughter to the pediatrician or nurse, after weighing and measuring him, look growth charts and they tell us things like: "it is above average", "it is below average", "it is in the 75th percentile of height" and "it is in the 15th percentile of weight".
What you are doing with these tables is to compare the height and weight of our child with the rest of the children, in order to know if they are growing and getting fat in a normal way, in the expected way. Today we are going to talk about the growth chart that looks at the height, so that you know how to use it and so that you know how tall is your child compared to the rest.
Growth charts by percentiles: height
The first thing we are going to do is offer you the growth charts so you can download or print them. There are several tables, designed differently according to the children analyzed. Until 2006, when WHO published new tables, in Spain we used those of the Faustino Orbegozo Foundation. They were made based on children born in the 70-80 in Vizcaya and, although they were very useful for a while, they had a double danger to today's children: they were based on children born at a time when bottle feeding was very common (which causes a pattern of weight gain and height different from breastfeeding) and that children were born in the Basque Country, where there is a lot of "chicarrón del norte".
In 2006, WHO published new tables made with children from different countries (Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway, United States and Oman), taking into account normal feeding for babies: breast milk. These tables came to normalize some babies who, with the other tables, seemed small or thin, and are currently used by many health centers, so these are the tables with which we work.
Growth chart by percentiles for children
The tables can be seen on the same page of the WHO, but I leave the links in case you want to print them. If you have a boy Under two years I recommend this table that goes from birth to 24 months. If you have more than 2 years you can download this one, which reaches up to 5 years.
Growth chart by percentiles for girls
Similarly, we can also see, download or print the growth charts for the girls. If you are under 2 years old, I recommend this one. If it is older than two years, the table that reaches up to 5 years can be found here.
How tables work
Looking at the height of our son or daughter on the tables is very simple. We just need to know how much you measure at each moment and look at the table according to age.
If for example we have a 5-month-old child who measures 65 cm, we look at the table and see that he is in an intermediate percentile between 15 and 50. It is said that he is in the 15th percentile (because he does not reach 50), although in reality it would be, more or less, in a 30-35 percentile.
And now you will say, And what is that "percentile"? Well, I answer. Percentile means percentage. When we talk about percentile, it is like saying “percent” (percent) and that is why the tables talk about values between 0 and 100.
If they tell you that your child is in the 15th percentile, they are telling you that of every 100 children, he is in the 15th position, with 85 children taller than him and 14 lower. That is, of all children, 14% are lower and 85% higher.
On the contrary, if they tell you that your child is in the 97th percentile, they are telling you that 3 children are taller than your child and 96 are shorter (out of 100).
The children studied to make the tables they are healthy children, so it is really unimportant where we place our son on the table. Come on, the pediatrician has to give exactly the same as our son is in the 15th percentile or in the 75th. One thing is not better than another. What you should look at, what you should consider, is evolution.
If with one month a child is in the 97th percentile, but with 5 months is in the 3rd percentile, the child will always be within the graphs, but the evolution will be a growth deficit that must be studied (This means that the phrase "while inside the curves there is no problem" is meaningless). That is why we must see evolution, rather than where it is at all times.
More things. If you look at the graphs, the 98 to 100 and 1-2 percentiles do not exist, they do not appear. However, in the normal studied children there were also those children. What happens is that they are removed from the tables to serve us as low limit and high limit from which professionals must assess whether to carry out any type of study. That is, being outside the graph does not mean not being normal or being sick, but it must be confirmed.
Below average
There are professionals who mark the good line on the average, the 50th percentile and who consider that everything that is below is a short child who is still eating little. They look at the mother, they put on the face of "I don't like this" and they say "it's below average, it's just right", as if you had to start priming the child to grow more.
Here are two mistakes. One, as I have already commented as normal is the child in the 15th percentile as the one in the 75th percentile. Simply, one is higher than the average and the other is lower than the average, but neither one is tall or the other is just. Both are normal because the tables were made with normal children. And two, that many health professionals believe that children, by eating more, will grow more. The height of a person depends largely on genetics. Depending on the genes you inherited it will be higher or less. And point (okay, also the environment and something else, but in a very low percentage). That height would be affected in case of illness (and then you have to diagnose the disease and remedy, but not give more food to the child) and in case of famine. But real famine, of not having to put it in your mouth. That is, nothing to do with that of "let's start giving the fruit to see if it grows" or things like that, which make no sense.
What is the use of measuring them then?
If we have said that we cannot do anything to make them grow more, what is the use of measuring them? Well, easy for see that they are growing as expected. If there is any hormonal alteration or a disease that affects growth, thanks to the tables we can see that they are stagnating.
So yes, if we see that a boy or girl does not grow, if we see that 2 months pass without growing a single centimeter, and that everything seems to indicate that when we reach the third the thing will not change, the pediatrician will indicate a whole series of tests that they will help to know the reason for that stagnation in height gain.
So, as I say, the important thing is to see how the evolution of the percentiles over time. You don't have to always be in the same percentile. In fact, most children change percentile as time goes by, sometimes going up to the next percentile, sometimes going down to the previous one.
For us, the parents, the tool helps us to know where they are positioned compared to the rest of their age children and sometimes, if we do not know how to interpret the tables, to get nervous. That is why today we have explained how to look at them, how to see evolution and when it is a cause for concern.
Photos | Thinkstock
In Babies and more | How and how much a child grows during childhood (I), Interpretation of weight and growth charts by Carlos González (I) and (II)
