Baby Growth Guide- Understanding Baby Height Weight Percentile
“Comparisons to other babies won’t tell you much about your own baby’s progress. Like grown-ups, babies come in all shapes and sizes—and meet growth and developmental milestones according to their own timetables. Growth charts are simply one tool healthcare providers use to track growth over time and a child’s relative weight and height at certain ages.”
– Ben Danielson, MD, a paediatrician and clinical professor of paediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle
The last thing you expect to monitor are charts that illustrate how beautifully your baby is growing. After all, your children aren’t another ‘project at work’ but rather, the ‘love of your life’. However, a paediatrician could do well with charts that serve as a standard reference for them vis a vis your baby’s general development.
Do you know the importance of baby height percentile?
If there’s one thing you can be sure of during every visit to your paediatrician, it is this: your child will be measured and weighed, and then those measurements plotted on an infant growth chart that will help keep tabs on how your little one is growing over time, and with relation to national averages.
What is an Infant Growth Chart?
An infant growth chart, in a nutshell, is nothing short of being a ‘height and weight chart for babies. Charts of this type have been used since 1977 to track the development of babies. In fact, the charts used today come from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Both the charts are useful in determining baby height percentile.
These charts are used to calculate things like ‘baby weight percentile’ and the ‘height percentile’ for babies. Your child’s measurements are plotted against standard averages to see how well they are growing over the years.
Note: What’s ‘normal ‘can vary greatly from baby to baby, on account of things like genetics, environment and even their activity level.
What Does Your Baby’s ‘Percentile’ mean?
Here’s an inside look at how the percentile thing works. At your next visit to the pediatrician, you will go through the usual: baby’s height and weight will be measured, along with their head circumference, and then plotted on a growth chart.
What you need to know is, any number between 5 and 95 (in terms of percentile) is considered normal. For instance, if that baby weight percentile is 60, it will mean that they are as tall, or taller than, 60 percent of the children in their age group. The same goes for that height percentile for babies.
Do you have a baby height and weight chart?
The most important thing you need to realize is this: that baby growth percentile does not really matter in terms of the relative position it occupies on the infant growth chart. What truly matters is that it should follow a consistent curve on the growth chart over the first year. Moreover, a baby height and weight chart is crucial to identify any significant developmental growth problems in your children.
Why is the Head Circumference Measured?
A good question, indeed. The ‘head circumference’ is one of the ‘measurements’ that needs to be taken when it comes to determining that baby growth percentile, because it serves to give some clues about the child’s brain development. If, for instance, the baby’s head is bigger or smaller than most other babies’, there might be a problem. The case is similar in babies whose heads stop growing or grow too quickly.
A head that is unusually large might serve to indicate hydrocephalus – a buildup of fluid inside the brain. A smaller brain might indicate that the brain is not developing properly.
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Should the baby’s weight and height be in the same percentile range?
Yet another great question! That height and weight chart for babies usually reflects figures pertaining to their height, weight, and head circumference, that are in the same percentile range. Traditional wisdom would serve to indicate that your baby is developing well when you get figures along these lines.
That being said, there’s no need to panic if you find that the above values are out of whack. For instance, it’s perfectly natural for a child to suddenly shoot up in length, or have a sudden weight gain, leading to contrasting growth-chart percentiles. In other words, it is okay if there are significant changes in the baby height chart and baby weight chart.
Identifying Potential Issues- When to be Concerned?
While you should generally find no cause for alarm when comparing that baby growth percentile with the last recorded value, there are certain results that might signal a health problem. It is important to notice the factors mentioned below while reviewing your baby’s height and weight charts.
- When the percentile changes from a pattern it’s been consistently following
- When they don’t get taller at the same rate at which they are gaining weight
While we have already established that it’s normal to see fluctuations in height and weight percentiles, you might wish to stay on the safe side by checking to find if everything’s all right, if that deviation is a tad abnormal. For instance, if your baby’s weight and height percentile has been 60 for the first 5 years of their life, and it suddenly drops to 30 in their sixth year, it might just be a matter of concern.
To take an example, if a boy’s weight is in the 40th percentile and their height in the 90th percentile, and this is more or less the same over time, that might just be a deviation from the expected. On the other hand, if the child’s height and weight are both in the 90th percentile over time, all it means is they are simply a ‘healthy child who is larger than average’.
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What if Your Child is Not Growing?
Parents are more concerned about that percentile being ‘lower than expected’; of their children ‘not growing’. If, for example, your child does not gain weight and height at an expected rate, or if they undergo a significant amount of weight loss, it might be a good time to talk to your medical health provider, who will, in all probability, tweak the baby’s diet in accordance with the same.
The term commonly used by paediatricians to describe a condition like this is: Failure to thrive. This ‘failure to thrive’ is not only because of lack of sound nutrition. There are other underlying causes that might serve to bring about this condition: things like infections, hormonal issues, allergies or even a chronic illness such as diabetes.
Note: Don’t worry if your baby might not be getting enough sleep. That has nothing to do with that baby growth percentile.
Conclusion
Knowing about your baby’s growth can be confusing at times. To resolve your questions, we have provided complete information on the infant growth chart, the meaning of your baby’s height and weight percentile, and the method by which the baby’s head circumference is measured. The article also addresses the equal range between the baby’s weight and height percentile. We have also mentioned pointers on when one must be concerned about the height and weight percentile of the baby and measures to take if you find any abnormalities. In this article, we have provided you with detailed information on baby height and weight percentile. We hope to have answered questions regarding baby height weight percentile.
At EuroKids, we work towards the holistic development of children. This includes giving parents vital pointers on the kind of nutrition that’s best for their little ones. We continually strive to work towards the sound development of healthy, happy kids.
Are you prepared to track your baby’s growth journey? Which of these recommendations are you going to apply today?
References
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/growth-charts.html
https://www.parents.com/baby/development/problems/baby-growing-normally/
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