Recommendations from the Coventry consensus meeting: growth monitoring in children under the age of 2 years
| • Birth weight (but not length), related to gestational age, is essential both for growth monitoring and as an important epidemiological marker |
| • No justification has been found for the routine monitoring of length before the age of 2 years, except where there is concern |
| • Length should be measured only where there is concern about a child's growth or weight gain |
| • Babies who are growing normally should only be weighed at immunisation and surveillance contacts, and should not be weighed more than once every 2 weeks under the age of 6 months and once a month thereafter |
| • A child should be weighed whenever there is clinical concern |
| • Average children (initially > 9th and < 91st centile) often cross through one centile space during the 1st year. A sustained fall through two weight centile spaces justifies a more detailed assessment, which should initially be primary care based |