Just about every parent wants to know where their child falls on the growth charts, but a new survey shows many parents don’t understand how to read or interpret the information.
The online national survey, which appears in the October 2009 issue of Pediatrics, showed that about 85 percent of parents could look at a growth chart with one point plotted and correctly identify that the point corresponded to the child’s age. About two-thirds of parents were able to identify both a child’s weight and percentile on a chart with one plotted point.
But only 56 percent could correctly identify the meaning of “percentile” from a list of choices. In the context of a growth chart, a percentile measures how a child stacks up to his or her peers. For example, a child who is in the 80th percentile for height, for example, is taller than 80 percent of other children of their age, while a child in the 25th percentile, is shorter than 75 percent of their peers.
Only one-third of parents could identify a child’s age, weight and percentile on a chart, as well as the correct definition of percentile.
Growth charts were developed in the 1960s to help physicians monitor a child’s development. The latest versions, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were updated in 2001.
While the charts were meant for use by health-care providers, in practice, physicians often use the charts as visual aids for parents.
When reading growth charts, doctors tend to look for abrupt changes, such as a child whose height or weight trend suddenly drops off, which could be a sign of a problem. They also look for proportionality in height and weight.
