Summary

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that health care providers in primary care settings use the:

  • World Health Organization (WHO) growth standard charts to monitor growth of children aged birth to 2 years, regardless of type of feeding (Grummer-Strawn, Reinold, Krebs, 2010).
  • 2000 CDC growth charts to monitor growth of US children and teens aged 2 to 20 years (Grummer-Strawn, Reinold, Krebs, 2010).
  • 2022 CDC Extended BMI-for-Age Growth Charts to plot and track BMI of US children and teens aged 2 to 20 years who have very high BMIs (above the 97th percentile).

CDC’s stature-for-age, weight-for-age, and BMI-for-age growth charts help health care providers and parents assess the growth of US children and teens aged 2 to 20 years. The growth charts use percentile curves to show how a child compares to other children of the same sex and age in the reference population.

Connect with Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity