So how do you know if your child’s height and weight are normal? A doctor uses growth charts to help answer these questions.
“Growth charts are a standard part of any checkup, and they show doctors and nurses how kids are growing compared with other kids of the same age and gender,” says James Ebert, MD, lead physician for the lipid clinic at Dayton Children’s Hospital. “Growth charts also allow health care providers to see the pattern of kids’ height and weight gain over time and whether they’re developing proportionately.”
On the growth charts, the measurements that show where a child is compared with others are called percentiles. The percentiles are shown as lines drawn in curved patterns.
When doctors plot a child’s weight and height on the chart, they see which percentile line those measurements land on. The higher the percentile number, the bigger a child is compared with other kids of the same age and gender, whether it’s for height or weight; the lower the percentile number, the smaller the child is. For example, if a 4-year-old boy’s weight is in the 10th percentile that means that 10 percent of boys that age weigh less than he does and 90 percent of 4-year-old boys weigh more.
There is no one ideal number, but it’s important to determine with your doctor what is a healthy weight and height for your child.
“Ideally, each child will follow along the same growth pattern over time, growing in height and gaining weight at the same rate, with the height and weight in proportion to one another,” says Ebert. “This means that usually a child stays on a certain percentile line on the growth curve. So if our 4-year-old boy on the 10th percentile line has always been on that line, he is continuing to grow along his pattern, which is a good sign.”
A couple different growth chart patterns might signal a health problem. First, if your child’s weight or height percentile changes from a previous pattern. For example, if your daughter’s height and weight has been consistently on the 60th percentile line but drops to the 30th percentile at age 5, that might indicate a growth problem.
A second sign of potential trouble is if children don’t get taller at the same rate they gain weight. For example your son’s height is in the 40th percentile but his weight is in the 80th percentile. That is a problem the doctor may want to address.
It’s important to get regular check-ups for your child and ask at each appointment where your child is on the growth chart. That way, you and your doctor can deal with any problems quickly.
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