After a year, the UK design growth charts, using WHO data from 2 weeks to 4 
years, and UK birth and preterm data, are almost ready to be launched. There 
will also be new info for parents.
This project involved consultation with parents and groups of professionals, 
as well as testing materials in the groups through plotting and 
interpretation exercises.  These were conducted last summer, and I was 
closely invovled in this phase and part of the work. 

The group spent a great deal of time on writing clear instructions.  These 
may be most relevant to the UK situation. 

I will give you the urls for the educational materials when that goes live, 
and also to the charts (I believe they will be online).  Our design will be 
crown copyright, which means that anyone can produce charts from it as long 
as they use the exact spec. 

In view of some of the comments made earlier in another discussion, I want 
to state that our working group, which was convened by the Royal College of 
Paediatrics and Child Health in England, was a group of 9 (plus the 
designer); 5 of whom are paediatricians.  I couldn't have more respect for 
the work of the team and of these paediatric colleagues. 

Because we presented papers on the chart to the annual meeting of the RCPCH, 
I had the pleasure of sitting through an afternoon advocacy session in which 
paediatricians presented on and debated child poverty.  It was really 
heartening to hear them on this aspect of their work. 

I want to remind everyone that some of the most important advocates of 
breastfeeding have been and are paediatricians.  Actions of one association 
do not necessarily represent the whole profession. 

Back to the chart -- I realise that it is of marginal interest to most of 
you because it will be in kilos and therefore unuseable.  However, I am 
hoping that we will continue to monitor its implementation in some way, and 
that we may be able to report on this project in the future.  I believe that 
the UK is the first 'developed' country to adopt the chart and I suspect our 
process of consultation and testing (and subsequent changes to the design) 
may be a first for any growth chart. 

Magda Sachs
member UK-WHO Growth Chart Working Group, UK 

 

 

 

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