LONGITUDINAL MONTHLY BODY MEASUREMENTS FROM 1 TO 12 MONTHS OF AGE - ASTUDY BY PRACTITIONERS FOR PRACTITIONERS

A longitudinal growth study with monthly measurements during the Ist y ear of life was conducted by nine paediatricians working in private pr actice in Zurich. Of 92 children, none was lost to the study and only 32 of 1104 planned visits were missed; the quality of the measurements was comparable to that of a specialised university clinic. Compared t o the Zurich Longitudinal Growth Studies, children of this study were considerably heavier and taller. In 92% of the subjects, growth veloci ty was at least once outside the reference range (3rd-97th percentile) . For weight increments, the corresponding proportion was 87%. Conclus ions The data indicate that current standards for the Ist year of life for the Zurich area might no longer be appropriate and need to be upd ated. The currently used velocity percentiles based on 3-monthly measu rements are not suitable to assess individual height and weight increm ents calculated from monthly measurements.