In its September 10, 2010 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that clinicians in the United States use the 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts rather than the 2000 CDC growth charts for children under age two. CDC growth charts should be used for children over aged 2-19 years.
Both the CDC and WHO growth charts are similar in that they describe weight, length/stature, and body mass index for age, however, the WHO charts are of growth standards (describing the growth of healthy children in optimal conditions) whereas the CDC charts are growth references (describing how certain children grew in a particular place and time. The expert panel convened by CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Academy of Pediatrics reviewed scientific evidence and discussed the use of the newer WHO growth charts in the U.S. and determined that clinicians should, in practice, use growth charts as standards not as references.
Part of the CDC’s recommendation is based on the recognition that breastfeeding is the recommended standard for infant feeding and in the WHO charts the healthy breastfed infant is the standard to which all other infants are compared.
