Infants' Growth Charts in Jahrom, Iran

Objective: This study was performed to provide the curves of weight and height of 0-2 year-old children in Jahrom, Southeastern Iran. Methods: In a prospective study, 597 children born in Jahrom entered our study from April 2001 to December 2002. The height and weight of these children were recorded 18 times from one month to two years of age. Healy-Rasbash-Yang (HRY) method was used to estimate age related smoothed centiles. This method was implemented for the World Health Organisation as GROSTAT computer package. Findings: The mean weight of male newborns, except for one-month olds, was more than that of females. Before two months of age and among 2-year-olds, there was no significant difference between the weight of males and females. The mean height of male newborns, except for one month of age, was more than that of females. No more than cubic polynomials were needed to smoothly fit height for age and weight for age of children. The height of male and female children showed an increase by age up to two years. The weight of male and female children also increased by age but the speed of increase to six months was more than that of six months to two years of age. Conclusion: Our findings show that height and weight of children under two years of age in Jahrom were lower than those of National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). It is therefore deemed necessary to provide and establish a corresponding standard curve for this region. According to the NCHS measurements, some children may be considered thinner or shorter for no obvious reason