WHO Child Growth Standards

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a new international child growth standard, April 27, 2006. For more information, see the WHO's news release.*

The Department of Health and Human Services (CDC and NIH) and the American Academy of Pediatrics convened an expert panel in June to consider using the new WHO charts versus the CDC charts. The panel compared the 2000 CDC growth charts to the new WHO charts and examined how U. S. children might be assessed differently using the two references. Guidance will be developed for appropriate use of these growth charts for monitoring growth within the US Population.

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