I'd say it's about stinking time!!!

Ever since Dory was born, I have been unhappy with the growth charts and have known that they have been based on formula fed infants and not breastfed ones, as should be the norm. Dory was real high on them, and then drastically dropped causing others that I know and love to worry that she was too small. I loathed the fact that I knew that she was fine, and very healthy, but didn't have a good place to just instantly show it. Well, the WHO apparently heard my cries for help! Dory at 2 years old is squarely between the 50th and 85th percentiles for both length and weight! And this means, NO, my breastfed 2 year old is not small for her age, she is very healthy thank you!

I am a bit excited to tell Mom, who works for WIC... She'll be excited too! I do hope that America adopts this new scale soon rather than fighting it. I can certainly foresee formula companies putting up a stink!

Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Endorses New WHO Child Growth Standards
4/28/2006 1:40:00 PM EST

BIOWIRE

With the release yesterday of the new international growth standards for infants and children, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) endorses the work of the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study (MGRS). Unlike the old growth charts, the new standards (1) describe how children "should grow," (2) establish breastfeeding as the biological "norm," and (3) provide international standards for all healthy children. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (www.bfmed.org), a global organization of physicians dedicated to the promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding and human lactation, urges worldwide adoption of these standards.

At its 11th International Meeting in September 2006 in Niagara Falls, NY, ABM will feature Cuberto Garza, MD, PhD, addressing this research and the new international growth standards. Further discussion of this work will appear in the new peer-reviewed journal Breastfeeding Medicine (www.liebertpub.com/bfm), the official journal of the Academy.

Current infant and child growth charts have been criticized because they are based on 20-year-old, limited samples of mostly formula-fed infants whose pattern of growth has been demonstrated to deviate substantially from that of healthy breastfed infants. Infants fed artificial milks (formula) put on weight more quickly than those that are breastfed, thereby inaccurately classifying breastfed infants as underweight.

Undertaken between 1997 and 2003, the MGRS collected growth and related data from 8,440 healthy breastfed infants and young children from diverse ethnic backgrounds and cultural settings (Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway, Oman, USA). The growth standards developed depict the normal early childhood growth under optimal environmental conditions and can be used to assess children everywhere, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and type of feeding.

Human milk supports not only healthy growth, but also optimal cognitive development and long-term health. The resulting growth standards are recommended for application to all children independent of type of feeding. Joan Meek MD, MS, RD, FABM, President of the Academy and child nutrition expert noted: "Current research has shown that too rapid growth in infancy is associated with higher blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity later in life. It is well documented that infants grow and develop best on human milk."

The manual detailing the methods and development of the WHO Child Growth Standards is available at: www.who.int/bookorders. The actual growth charts are available at: http://www.who.int/childgrowth

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publisher of Breastfeeding Medicine, is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Journal of Women's Health, Obesity Management, and Disease Management. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsletters is available at www.liebertpub.com.

Joan Younger Meek, MD,MS, RD, FABM

President, Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine