Range of Variability in Weight and Height of Children under Six Years of Age1

Abstract

ODAY great emphasis is placed upon the desirability of weighing and measuring children as a method of obtaining an index of their nutrition and development. Parents are urged by physicians and educators to keep records of weight and height of their children and in most nursery schools measuring weight and height are routine procedures. The standard tables in present use, namely, Baldwin-Wood tables for school children and Woodbury tables for preschool children, are based upon the average weights for the given intervals of age and height. Normal in weight for a given height and age due to differences in body build is arbitrarily allowed for by assuming that a child who is either 7 per cent below average or, according to some authorities, 10 per cent, is malnourished and one who is 15 per cent above average is overweight. In criticism of this custom, Faber (1) pointed out that these zones are inadequately defined. From his study of 34,000 San Francisco children, Faber concludes that variability in weight for height in the direction of both underweight and overweight increases with age in both sexes, that girls show both a greater and a more rapid increase in with increasing age than do boys, and that these differences and variations in are too great to be disregarded in favor of a single standard of variation such as is now in general use. After extensive analysis of the data, Faber assumed that children with weights below the 10 percentile for their age and height could be considered poorly nourished or underweight and those with weights above the 90 percentile considered overweight, and that all children between the 10 and 90 percentiles of weight could be considered wellnourished in so far as the nutritional state can be estimated from weight. In a subsequent article, Faber (2) published a table for school children similar to the Baldwin-Wood tables giving a range based upon the 10 and 90 percentiles of 60,000 observed weights for age and height. Due to the widespread interest in nursery school children, it seems worthwhile to attempt to set up standards for preschool children similar to those of Faber and to present them 1 The writer made this study while in attendance during summer session at the Institute of Child Welfare, University of Minnesota. She wishes to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Edith Boyd for guidance and assistance generously given.