The adolescent female growth spurt occurs during the first third of puberty while the adolescent male growth spurt tends to occupy the last third of puberty. Girls tend to start pubertyВ about six to 12 months in advance of boys. There is less impact of maternal height upon her son's height her stature will tend to affect her daughter more than the father's height. With increasing age, parental stature tends to be reflected in the same gender child (for example, tall fathers tend to have tall sons). As the child matures, the general observation that males are larger than females becomes apparent. Do growth charts differ forВ boysВ andВ girls?ДЄssuming a routine pregnancy, labor, and delivery, the measurements of newbornВ boys and girls have a large overlap of values. There are specific growth charts for children with genetic issues (for example, Down syndrome), substantial prematurity, and other conditions that might need to be considered to assess growth rates in such unique groups. These graphs document that such high-risk children are growing at their unique rate of growth even if that rate is below other children. By obtaining multiple measurements over time, the pediatrician can ensure that both the routine infant and those with risk factors have a steady rate of growth.Substantial prematurity (The routinely used growth charts for infants to assume term and normal pregnancy. Growth chart measurements place a patient's measurements on a percentile. Healthy children tend to have a steady (and thus somewhat predictable) rate of growth. Pediatricians find growth charts extremely valuable in assessing a child's health. Weight-for-stature percentiles chart for boys SOURCE: CDC.

Cumulative measurements over a standardized block of time enhance the precision of such an assessment.This technique allows an assessment of how a child's rate of growth compares to his peer group as well as his own previous rate of growth.In the bottom right corner, the pediatrician logs a specific child's measurements over time, which allows the doctor to plot the child's growth rate and view it in comparison with average growth rates in the general population, whether length, height, weight, BMI or head circumference.Babies in this cohort start out at 55 cm at birth and grow to well over 100 cm by 33 months. This line tells us the 95th through 99th percentiles include the biggest babies.It is labeled '95,' meaning this growth trajectory is only common in 95th percentile of children.EXAMPLE: On the first chart, 'Birth to 36 Months: Boys Length-for-age and Weight-for-Age percentiles,' take a look at the first sloping line.The top row represents the progression of time during the observation period.

The leftmost column includes measurements at the beginning of the observation period, and the rightmost includes measurements at the end of the observation period.That numberВ refers to the proportionВ of children in the general population who follow a particular growth pattern over time, which corresponds with the line on the graph.The lines that slope upward from left to right are each labeled with a percentile.Growth charts are a tool to visualize a child's rate of growth over time (for example, months and years) compared with the growth rates of children in the population at-large.

Length-for-age and weight-for-age percentiles chart for boys from birth to 36 months.

Age progression chart