Using the new UK-WHO growth charts

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has now published a complete set of growth charts for preterm infants up to adolescents for the purpose of surveillance and the assessment of individual children with health and growth problems. This paper describes the various new charts and advises on how they should be used. Novel features of the charts include look-up charts for Body Mass Index (BMI) centile, predicted adult height and mid parental centile. The charts now include detailed evidence based instructions on topics such as how to plot the growth of preterm infants and a simplified classification of the phases of puberty.