I think it is important that people (especially health care providers) understand what growth monitoring can and can't tell us.  We need to understand the notions of sensitivity and specificity.  I heard Adriano Cattaneo (one of the authors of the WHO Growth Standard) speak on this.  If I remember correctly, the specificity of the new Growth Standard in a food secure population is about 2% - which means that most of the time infants whose growth deviates from the standard will, upon further investigation, simply be healthy outliers.  Deviation from Growth Standard is not a diagnosis.  It is an indicator, a reason to investigate further.  NO treatment is required if the child is otherwise healthy.
Nina Berry
Australia
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