New Teen-Age Boy and Girl Growth Charts for Pediatric Office Use.

The article focuses on new teenage boy and girl growth charts for pediatric office use. These charts are in pounds and inches only, which are the forms of measurement used in most office practices. Inclusion of centimeters and kilograms was omitted in order to minimize visual confusion. Also, to facilitate charting, the increments of two pounds and one inch per horizontal line are exactly the same as in the original continuous boy-girl growth chart. Another feature that speeds charting time is the placing of age in years at three different levels, instead of only once as in conventional graphs. For simplicity, only the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles of height and weight appear. The advantage of printing the boy and girl growth charts back to back on a single sheet is that fewer forms are needed. These teenage charts cover the specific range from 11 to 16 years of age, with each yearly age divided into three month intervals. It is easy to plot growth when desirable even at monthly office visits.