NATURAL GROWTH IN CHILDREN BORN SMALL-FOR-GESTATIONAL-AGE WITH AND WITHOUT CATCH-UP GROWTH

This first report from a population-based postnatal growth study of 36 50 healthy Swedish subjects born at full term provides new reference v alues for height and weight and shows that over the last 20 years ther e has been a small secular trend in height (0.2-0.4 SDS over the whole age range) in Sweden in both boys and girls. Within this cohort, 111 (3.1%) were of low birth weight (below -2 SDS) and 141 (3.5%) were of low birth length (below -2 SDS); 54 (1.5%) were both light and short a t birth. Of the children born small for gestational age, 87% showed fu ll catch-up growth within 2 years of life. They attained puberty at a normal or early age and reached a mean final height of -0.7 SDS. The r emaining subgroup of 13% born small for gestational age remained below -2 SDS throughout childhood and reached puberty somewhat early. Their mean final height was -1.7 SDS. The current data set is too small to identify possible background factors, but it is being expanded with th is objective in mind.