Corrected Age Adjustment Guidelines for Premature Infants
General Recommendations for Age Correction
Growth Assessment
Special Populations
Infants with Chronic Lung Disease
Infants with Congenital Heart Disease
Growth Monitoring for Preterm Infants
Recommended Growth Charts
- The World Health Organization recommends using WHO growth charts for infants under 24 months, which represent optimal growth standards based on healthy breastfed infants, with the 2.3rd and 97.7th percentiles used as cutoffs for identifying abnormal growth 6, 7
- The American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC, and NIH recommend using WHO growth charts for all infants under 24 months 8, 9, 6
- The CDC recommends switching to CDC growth charts at 24 months of age and continuing through 19 years, as the methods used to create WHO and CDC charts are similar after 24 months, allowing for continuous monitoring without further chart changes 7, 6
Growth Monitoring and Assessment
- Serial measurements are essential, and growth velocity over time is more informative than isolated measurements, with a z-score change of ≥-1.5 to -2.0 from birth indicating clinically significant growth faltering 10, 6
- The CDC recommends using the 5th and 95th percentiles as cutoff points for identifying abnormal growth 6
Transitioning Between Chart Types
- Expect a slight disjunction when transitioning between chart types (Fenton to WHO at term, WHO to CDC at 24 months), which may temporarily reclassify a child's growth percentile, but this should be interpreted in context of overall growth trajectory 6