How to use

• From the sidebar menu, select the sex of the child. (The plots shown by default is that of a girl child)

• Enter the age in (years) and height (in cm) of the child, and press the “Show plot” button to display your child’s growth curve. 

• Your child’s height can be  displayed in comparison with the IAP growth charts, the recently updated GAMLSS charts or the first-of-its-kind SITAR growth curves. Select the option from the sidebar menu.

How to interpret

The plots are a tool to assess how well your child’s height is progressing, compared to the average height growth patterns observed in the Indian population. Check with your doctor for further assessment. 

About growth charts

Growth charts are traditionally used to assess a child’s growth in reference to the observed growth patterns in a population.  They are drawn as percentile (centile) curves, where each percentile curve is labelled according to the percentage of population below the curve. For example, 3 percent of the population has height less than the 3rd percentile height in the given age group. Growth charts currently recommended for clinical use by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP, 2015) can be printed here.

What’s new!

Child height growth curves can now be estimated using two new state-of-the-art models that use the SITAR (SuperImposition by Rotation and Translation) and GAMLSS (Generalized Additive Models for Location Scale and Shape) methods. The GAMLSS method provides more finely tuned percentiles in Indian children. SITAR height growth curves are developed from height measurements collected serially (longitudinally) from long-term observations in Indian children.

References

1. Indian Academy of Pediatrics Growth Charts Committee, Khadilkar V, Yadav S, Agrawal KK, Tamboli S, Banerjee M, Cherian A, Goyal JP, Khadilkar A, Kumaravel V, Mohan V, Narayanappa D, Ray I, Yewale V. Revised IAP growth charts for height, weight and body mass index for 5- to 18-year-old Indian children. Indian Pediatr. 2015 Jan;52(1):47-55. doi: 10.1007/s13312-015-0566-5. PMID: 25638185.

2. Stasinopoulos, DM, & Rigby, RA (2008). Generalized Additive Models for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) in R. J. Stat. Soft., 23, 1–46. doi: 10.18637/jss.v023.i07

3. Cole TJ, Donaldson MD, Ben-Shlomo Y. SITAR--a useful instrument for growth curve analysis. Int J Epidemiol. 2010 Dec;39(6):1558-66. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyq115. Epub 2010 Jul 20. PMID: 20647267; PMCID: PMC2992626.