Pediatric Growth ChartsMonitoring physical growth is fundamental to pediatric health care delivery. As part of our ongoing efforts to support you in your delivery of care to children, we want to remind you that the most current pediatric growth charts are available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. The regular use of pediatric growth charts by health professionals in tracking the physical growth of infants, children, and adolescents is considered standard care for children in the U.S. According to the CDC, there are several new features to the clinical growth charts:
The format of the individual charts have been updated. In addition to the two individual charts appearing on a single page, data entry tables have been added. The clinical charts have grids that have been scaled to metric units (kg, cm), with English units (lb, in) as the secondary scale. Clinical charts are available for boys and girls. The clinical charts for infants and older children are published in two sets:
Preventive medicine is most effective when health care professionals, administrative staff, and patients work as a team. Please use these growth charts to assist the preventive health efforts of your office. The CDC provides an instructional guide to clinicians on how to use and interpret the CDC Growth Charts to assess physical growth in children and adolescents. By using these charts, providers can compare growth in infants, children, and adolescents with a nationally representative reference based on children of all ages and racial or ethnic groups. Comparing both measurements with the appropriate age- and gender-specific growth chart enables health care providers to monitor growth and identify potential health or nutrition-related problems. Go to the CDC’s web-based interactive training modules and tools. You can also download the clinical growth charts or call the CDC at 301-458-4636 to request copies of the charts. |