I'm sure Jim Akre can give an answer as well, but as one of the reviewers
of the WHO Working Group's document I can take a shot at it. The WHO
Working Group on Infant Growth as put out a book called An evaluation of
infant growth. Nutrition Unit, WHO, Geneva, 1994. (Though it actually came
out this summer.) It provides pooled data, including what could be called
growth charts for the first 12 months (pp 59-64), based on the growth of
453 infants from seven studies in N America and Europe. To be included,
babies were not given solids or milks for the first 4 months, though some
investigators were not terribly strict about this. No attention was paid to
other fluids (otherwise the sample size would have been too small).

Though some people do not agree, the Group recommended "a new growth
reference is needed." They do not feel that the one referred to above is
adequate. For one thing, the sample size is too small. For another, the
sample is too homogenous, representing the growth of infants of normal
birth weight born mainly to well educated Caucasian parents. This problem
is hard to overcome, since it is not possible to find appropritate data
sets from other ethnic groups. This resulted in a small variation in growth
rates which in turn means cut-off values will be closer to the median. Data
were inadequate to produce any curves at older ages.
Ted Greiner, PhD
Senior Lecturer in International Nutrition
Unit for International Child Health, Entrance 11
Uppsala University
75185 Uppsala
Sweden

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