NEW CHART TO EVALUATE WEIGHT FALTERING

A new chart was designed to aid accurate identification of weight falt ering and failure to thrive. It provides guidance on the lower Limits of expected weight gain for children, whatever their initial centile p osition. The chart's theoretical basis, the process of its constructio n, and its evaluation are described in this paper. Evaluation was by a self completion questionnaire, where respondents answered questions a bout a range of standardised growth patterns, plotted on old and new c harts. Forty five health visitors, 28 general practitioner principals and registrars, and nine community paediatricians provided 328 chart r atings. These showed that the new format significantly increased the p roportion of correctly rated charts (old: 45 (28%); new: 82 (51%)), wi th the greatest impact in severe cases. This suggests that the new cha rt improves the precision of judgments made about weight gain in infan cy.