Archives de pédiatrie : organe officiel de la Sociéte française de pédiatrie
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Review Multicenter Study Comparative Study
[WHO growth standards for infants and young children].
The growth pattern of healthy breastfed infants deviates to a significant extent from the NCHS/WHO international reference. In particular, this reference is inadequate because it is based on predominantly formula-fed infants, as are most national growth charts in use today. The WHO multicentre growth reference study (MGRS), aimed at describing the growth of healthy breastfed infants living in good hygiene conditions, was conducted between 1997 and 2003 in 6 countries from diverse geographical regions: Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway, Oman and the United States. ⋯ It also provides a tool that is timely and appropriate for the ethnic diversity seen within countries and the evolution toward increasingly multiracial societies in the Americas and Europe as elsewhere in the world. The WHO standards provide a better tool to monitor the rapid and changing rate of growth in early infancy. They also demonstrate that healthy children from around the world who are raised in healthy environments and follow recommended feeding practices have strikingly similar patterns of growth.