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Height And Weight Chart: An Easy Tool to Monitor Your Child’s Health

Height And Weight Chart: An Easy Tool to Monitor Your Child’s Health

17 Nov 2017 | 4 min Read

Babychakra

Author | 1369 Articles

How does a height and weight chart help track a child’s growth?

A height and weight chart plays a silent, but important role in the growth of your baby. It is the most effective, and easy tool that helps in observing the growth of your child on a monthly basis. Using a height and weight chart as per age helps both you and the doctor in assessing the growth of the child at regular intervals. It also helps in identifying various diseases that might be hampering your little one’s progress. Nutrition is an important factor in your child’s growth and development, and a height and weight chart according to age is the best indicator to evaluate it.

Various growth charts are used by doctors in common practice. Some of these are used only for below children 5 years. These include height-weight-head chart, weight-length chart, motor development milestones, arm-circumference –for-age, etc. The BMI (basal metabolic index) chart is used for children between 5 to 18 years of age.

How to use a height and weight chart:

The figures above show the height and growth chart percentile for boys and girls.

The Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) has developed height and weight chart for children in India based on the child growth standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, the new revised height and weight chart for kids made by IAP in 2015 is being used for children from 5 to 18 years. As there is a difference in the rate of growth, the height and weight chart for boys and girls is different.

After appropriate measurements (like height, weight, basal metabolic index calculation, head circumference etc.), the doctor or your pediatrician plots a dot on the graph corresponding to the values on the percentile curved lines. A new dot is plotted on every visit to the doctor and compared to the previous dots as well the standard values. Comparison of the new dot with the previous one helps in analyzing the changes and trend in the growth pattern of your child.

A dot corresponding to values of weight-age-height above the topmost line (97th percentile) and below the bottom-most line (3rd percentile) is considered to be outside the normal range. This indicates that there is a high likelihood of your child suffering from a healthcare issue.

You too can maintain the height and weight measures right at home and plot dots accordingly to assess your child’s growth. If s/he falls outside the highlighted curve, then report it to your doctor.

Why height-weight charts are useful:

Height and weight chart by age of child is a cheap, easy, safe, non-invasive and efficient tool to monitor the growth of your child right at home.

A Height and weight chart shows how your child is growing in comparison to the standard reference values i.e. whether your child is growing in height and weight similar to most other children his/her age.

It helps in diagnosing various health conditions related to nutrition (protein-energy malnutrition), chronic diseases, etc. that may affect the growth of your child.

Height and weight chart for boys (0 to 18 years) (IAP and WHO combined)

Age (years)	Height (centimeter)	Weight (kilograms)
0 to 1	46 to 80	2.5 to 12
1 to 2	71 to 94	7.5 to 15
2 to 3	82 to 103	9.5 to 18
3 to 4	89 to 111	11.5 to 21
4 to 5	95.5 to 118.5	12.5 to 24.5
5 to 6	100 to 126	13.5 to 28
6 to 7	104 to 132.5	14.5 to 33.5
7 to 8	109 to 139	16 to 39.5
8 to 9	114 to 145.5	17.5 to 45.5
9 to 10	119 to 151.5	19 to 51.5
10 to 11	123.5 to 157	21 to 58
11 to 12	128 to 163.5	22.5 to 66
12 to 13	133 to 170	25 to 175.5
13 to 14	138 to 175.5	27.5 to 78
14 to 15	143 to 179.5	30.5 to 83
15 to 16	148 to 183	34.5 to 86
16 to 17	152 to 184.5	37 to 87.5
17 to 18	155 to 186.5	39.5 to 88

Height and weight chart table for girls (0 to 18 years) (IAP and WHO combined)

Age (years)	Height (centimeter)	Weight (kilograms)
0 to 1	46 to 79	2.3 to 11.5
1 to 2	69 to 92.5	7 to 14.5
2 to 3	80 to 102	9 to 17.5
3 to 4	85.5 to 111	11 to 21
4 to 5	95 to 118	12.5 to 25
5 to 6	97.5 to 125.5	13 to 29
6 to7	102 to 135	13.8 to 33
7 to 8	107 to 138	15 to 38
8 to 9	112.5 to 144.5	16.5 to 43
9 to 10	117.5 to 151	18.2 to 49
10 to 11	123 to 157	20.8 to 56
11 to 12	129 to 162	23 to 62
12 to 13	134 to 166	26 to 67
13 to 14	138 to 168	28.5 to 70.5
14 to 15	141 to 169.5	31.2 to 72
15 to 16	143.5 to 170	33 to 72 .5
16 to 17	144.5 to 170.5	34.8 to 73
17 to 18	146 to 171	36 to 74

Note: We do not recommend cow’s milk and products before 12months of baby’s age. We also do not recommend introducing meat or non veg before the baby turns an year old. Do consult your Doctor before introducing any of these.

Source of banner image: Lazada-Taobao

Disclaimer: The information in the article is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor.

Read: The Ultimate Height and Weight tracker for little Girls