World Health Organization Child Growth Standards

Adequate nutrition during the early years of life is of paramount importance for growth, development, and long-term health through adulthood. It is during infancy and early childhood that irreversible faltering in linear growth and cognitive deficits occur. Pediatricians and other health professionals rely largely on the assessment of children's growth status to determine whether infant and young child nutrition is adequate. The World Health Organization (WHO) standards date back to the early 1990s, when the WHO initiated a comprehensive review of the uses and interpretation of anthropometric references, and conducted an in-depth analysis of growth data from breastfed infants. Standards for other anthropometric variables were released in 2007, and growth velocity standards for weight, length, and head circumference in 2009. The scrutiny that the WHO standards have undergone is without precedent in the history of developing and applying growth assessment tools.