An important goal of growth monitoring in childhood is to identify genetic disorders and diseases. For early detection one requires adequate growth references, frequent measures of height and weight of children and evidence-based referral criteria.

A guideline for short stature was published recently.1 It has been shown that target height (TH) adds greatly to the predictive ability of this guideline.

TH is a term used for the expected height of a child given the heights of the parents. The calculation of the TH has changed over the years. In 1886, Galton introduced the mid-parental height (MPH) as the average of the heights of the two parents, that is, MPH=(FH+MH)/2, where FH and MH denote the heights of the father and mother, respectively.2 In 1970, Tanner defined an adjustment for sex on the MPH.3 In the previous …