Dear Friends:
    Thought you all would be interested in this. One has to register for this 
service. The website for the article is
http://www.kidsgrowthmarketplace.com/feature.cfm?uc=2757e18p5x960369461&cat=tn
ews&pos=3
 
June 2, 2000 -- Earlier this week the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention released updated growth charts. 

The revised pediatric growth charts more accurately reflect the nation’s 
cultural and racial diversity and track children and young people through age 
20. Additionally, the charts now include a new assessment for body mass index 
(BMI). According to the CDC, there is considerable improvement in the infant 
growth charts, where new data and improved statistical procedures have been 
useful in the revision process. 

CDC’s new growth charts are based on data gathered through the National 
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). This survey showed that in 
the past two decades the number of overweight children and adolescents has 
doubled. Additionally, it showed that over half of all American adults are 
overweight and that the number of obese adults has doubled. Health care 
providers hope that the new BMI charts will help address this nationwide 
problem. The growth charts indicate that, in general, children are heavier 
today than in 1977, when growth charts were first used, but height has 
remained virtually unchanged. 


Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI
craniosacral therapy practitioner
Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA)
supporter of the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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