Using the WHO Growth Standard Charts

Accessing the WHO Growth Charts Online

The WHO growth charts for children younger than 2 years have been adapted for use in the United States and are available with English units of measurement and percentiles at www.cdc.gov/growthcharts. These growth charts are recommended for clinical use with all infants and young children. The 4 available growth charts are scaled for both English and metric measurements and include the following:

• Birth to 24 months: Boys Weight-for-length percentiles and Head circumference-for-age percentiles [PDF-543KB]
• Birth to 24 months: Boys Length-for-age percentiles and Weight-for-age percentiles [PDF-675KB]
• Birth to 24 months: Girls Weight-for-length percentiles and Head circumference-for-age percentiles [PDF-400KB]

 

• Birth to 24 months: Girls Length-for-age percentiles and Weight-for-age percentiles [PDF-680KB]

Use of the BMI-for-age growth chart is not recommended for children younger than age two years at this time.

• While the WHO growth standards include a BMI chart beginning at birth, the expert panel generally agreed that many questions about BMI during infancy remain unanswered so use of the BMI chart is not recommended for clinical use before age two years. 
• The BMI in infancy is based on recumbent length rather than stature and, to date, there has been little research on what BMI calculated from length means in infancy and on the consequences of high or low BMI in infancy.