I am really pleased to see that from this week health visitors will be switching over to the World Health Organisation growth chartsfor measurement of infant growth. I have had one stuck in my boy’s red book for months, diligently plotting his growth on both the bottle fed based chart that officialdom requires and the WHO chart which I felt was more appropriate. The only time I asked my health visitor about it she had never heard of it, so I hope that some training is being rolled out. Luckily he’s been storming ahead on both charts (‘robust’ is the word I think) but I don’t think he’s obese just yet.

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These charts may seem trivial but they are important – because they form the cornerstone of health visitor intervention in the early months. This helpful documentexplains why the new charts are different and better.