Do We Need Another Set of Growth Charts for Premature Infants?

Growth charts are an essential part of neonatal care. Plotting infant data on growth charts at birth and postnatally over time allows us to assess the quantity and quality of growth compared with a reference we want to call “normal.”^1,2 Assessing the degree to which weight, length, head circumference, and BMI are abnormal at birth and monitoring how an infant is growing compared with normal allows clinicians to assess health and risk for future morbidity.^1,–9 Growth charts are used to inform nutritional support and medical care. Clinicians often do not rigorously consider how these curves were created, smoothed, and/or validated.² Every reported “standard/reference” growth curve has been challenged.^2,8,10,–13 In this issue of Pediatrics, new weight and head circumference growth charts for infants born between 22 and 29 weeks’ gestational age (GA) from Boghossian...