Use the same sex profile used by the growth reference chart.
Format: age_months,height_cm,weight_kg; one visit per line.
Conservative escalates earlier; tolerant waits for stronger signal.
Balanced keeps report neutral; focused modes emphasize the selected risk theme.
Enter 1-3 critical flags; lower values move reports into urgent lane sooner.
critical flags
Choose WHO, CDC, or Hybrid; default hybrid handles mixed-age reports.
Accepted range: 0.5-12 months in 0.5-month steps.
months
Routine, Priority, or Urgent biases the Guidance tab wording and timing.
Choose balanced unless the review is specifically linear-growth or weight-gain focused.
Cautious softens forecasts when visits are sparse or variable.
Enter 1-4 major bands; default 2 flags larger percentile lane shifts.
bands
Enter 8-40 percentile points; default 25 marks meaningful movement.
points
Enter 2-10 cm/year; lower values flag slower annualized height gain.
cm/year
Enter 85-99th percentile; 95th is common for high-BMI screening.
th
Enter 1-12 months; high-severity flags can shorten this baseline.
months
Enter 18-36 months; 24 months is the usual WHO-to-CDC handoff marker.
months
Metric Value
{{ row.label }} {{ row.value }}
No metrics yet.
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No detail rows yet.
Severity Signal Evidence Action cue
{{ row.severity }} {{ row.signal }} {{ row.evidence }} {{ row.action }}
No screening flag rows available yet.
Priority Recommendation Rationale Timeline
{{ row.priority }} {{ row.recommendation }} {{ row.rationale }} {{ row.timeline }}
No guidance recommendations available yet.
Handoff item Value Operational cue
{{ row.label }} {{ row.value }} {{ row.note }}
No handoff brief rows available yet.
Interval Height gain Observed velocity Guardrail Status
{{ row.interval }} {{ row.heightGain }} {{ row.observedVelocity }} {{ row.guardrail }} {{ row.status }}
No velocity intervals available yet.
Tags: Body Metrics, Diagnostics, Education
Growth Screening Flag Checker Review child growth visit rows in your browser for percentile drift, corrected-age routing, height velocity, adiposity alerts, and family-height triage.
BMI-for-Age Percentile Calculator Calculate a child's BMI-for-age percentile from height and weight or a known BMI, then compare WHO/CDC z-score, category, and P95 severity cues.
Weight-for-Length Percentile Calculator Calculate an infant's weight-for-length percentile from weight, length, sex, and reference source, with WHO/CDC comparison and source-fit notes.
Growth Percentile Trend Calculator Review a child's height, weight, or BMI percentile path across visits, with WHO/CDC context, band-crossing alerts, charts, and follow-up cues.
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:

Pediatric growth review is less about one dot on a chart than about whether a child's measurements stay on a believable path over time. Height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) change at different speeds in infancy, early childhood, school age, and adolescence, so a useful review keeps the latest measurement, the earlier visits, and the measurement method in view together.

Growth charts compare a child's size with a reference population of the same age and sex. Percentiles are ranks, not grades. A child near the 15th percentile can be growing normally when the line is steady, while a child near the middle of the chart can still deserve review if height gain slows, weight rises out of step with height, or measurements cross several familiar chart bands.

Term Practical meaning
Percentile The child's rank within a same-age, same-sex reference. It is familiar and easy to scan, but very small changes near the chart edges can look compressed.
Z-score The distance from the reference median in standard-deviation units. It helps compare how far height, weight, and BMI sit from the center.
Height velocity The annualized height gain between two visits. A low recent velocity can reveal a change in linear growth before the latest percentile alone looks extreme.
BMI-for-age A weight-height index interpreted by age and sex. It becomes a more central screening measure from age 2 onward.

The reference chart matters because age windows are not interchangeable. In U.S. clinical practice, WHO standards are commonly used from birth to age 2, and CDC charts are commonly used from age 2 through 19. The 24-month point is also a measurement handoff: recumbent length may shift to standing height, and weight-for-length comparisons give way to BMI-for-age framing.

Falling height percentile series across visits Three visit rows show height percentile bars dropping from the 55th percentile to the 18th and then the 4th, illustrating why trend review matters. Serial growth review catches pattern changes A falling height path can matter before one visit looks extreme by itself. Visit 1 55th height Visit 2 18th height Visit 3 4th height Trend, spacing, and measurement quality decide whether the pattern is credible.
A falling height series can matter even before a single measurement crosses the lowest chart line.

Measurement quality is often the first source of error. A copied unit mistake, a standing height mixed with recumbent length, a duplicate age row, or a child who was not positioned correctly can create a false concern. Growth review works best when the numbers are checked before the pattern is interpreted.

Growth reports are screening and communication aids. They can highlight patterns that deserve attention, but they do not diagnose endocrine disease, malnutrition, obesity, feeding problems, puberty timing, or treatment need without clinical history and validated charting.

How to Use This Tool:

Enter measurements for one child at a time. Each usable visit row needs three numbers in the order age_months,height_cm,weight_kg. Commas, spaces, semicolons, pipes, and tabs can separate values, but unit words or missing columns will create row errors.

  1. Choose Sex to match the growth reference profile used for the child.
  2. Paste or type Report visit rows. A single valid row can produce latest percentiles, while two or more increasing ages are needed for interval velocity.
  3. Set Risk tolerance, Report focus mode, and Urgent critical threshold before using the follow-up lane. Conservative tolerance and a lower urgent threshold move borderline reports into review sooner.
  4. Open Advanced when you need a specific reference style, WHO-CDC transition marker, baseline follow-up interval, BMI alert percentile, percentile-shift alert, band-crossing alert, or height velocity floor.
  5. Start with Growth Report Snapshot and Growth Report Metrics, then check the visit table, flag ledger, guidance, handoff brief, and velocity interval table.
  6. Use Growth Report Trend to compare height, weight, and BMI percentiles across ages. Use Height Velocity Trend when there are at least two visits.
  7. Copy or download tables when you need a handoff record. Chart images can be downloaded as PNG, WebP, or JPEG, and the JSON tab keeps the structured report together.

Interpreting Results:

The summary lane is a triage cue, not a diagnosis. Routine lane means the configured rules did not find active warning flags. Priority lane means watch flags or multiple warning signals suggest near-term review. Urgent lane means the number of critical flags meets the selected urgent threshold.

Critical and watch flags should be read with the visit table. A low height percentile is more concerning when the Velocity Interval Table also shows a slow recent interval. A high BMI percentile at 24 months or older is easier to interpret when weight and height percentiles are moving in the same direction, and less reliable if one visit was measured with a different technique.

  • Check the latest age, sex, reference set, and WHO-CDC marker before comparing two reports.
  • Treat sudden percentile shifts as measurement-quality questions until row order, units, and visit spacing are verified.
  • Use the handoff brief after checking the exact flag evidence and velocity interval that created the lane.

Technical Details:

The report combines position and change. Position answers where the latest height, weight, or BMI sits against an age- and sex-specific reference distribution. Change answers whether serial measurements stay near the same percentile path, cross major bands, or produce low annualized height gain.

Height-for-age, weight-for-age, and BMI-for-age are estimated from built-in reference curves. The selected WHO-style, CDC-style, or hybrid setting applies age- and metric-aware adjustments to those curves. These estimates are useful for education and triage preparation, but close boundary cases should be checked against official charting software or clinical records.

Formula Core:

BMI, z-score, percentile conversion, and interval height velocity drive the main numeric outputs.

BMI = w ( h100 ) 2 z = x-mref sref P = Φ(z)×100 v = (h2-h1)×12 a2-a1

In these formulas, w is weight in kilograms, h is height in centimeters, x is the observed height, weight, or BMI, mref and sref are the adjusted reference median and standard deviation, P is percentile, and v is height velocity in centimeters per year. For example, height rising from 86.8 cm at 24 months to 88.8 cm at 36 months gives (88.8 - 86.8) x 12 / (36 - 24) = 2.0 cm/year, which is below the default 4 cm/year velocity floor.

Rule Core:

Signal Default rule Report effect
Low linear growth percentile Latest height percentile < 3rd Critical flag.
Low or high weight percentile Latest weight percentile < 3rd or > 97th Watch flag.
Elevated BMI percentile Age >= 24 months and BMI percentile >= 95th by default Watch flag. The threshold can be set from the 85th to 99th percentile.
Downward height band crossing Latest height crosses at least 2 major bands downward by default Critical flag. Major bands use the 3rd, 15th, 50th, 85th, and 97th percentile markers.
Large weight percentile shift Band-crossing threshold is met and weight percentile changes by at least 25 points by default Watch flag.
Low recent height velocity Latest annualized height gain is below the configured floor, 4 cm/year by default Critical flag.
Triage lane Critical flags meet the urgent threshold, otherwise any watch flag Urgent, priority, or routine lane, with follow-up shortened from the baseline interval.

The Velocity Interval Table uses a stricter interval guardrail than the critical flag alone. Each interval is compared with the larger of the configured velocity floor and 65% of the expected height velocity for that age midpoint. That is why a row can show Below guardrail even when the latest critical flag depends specifically on the configured floor.

Validation Bounds:

Input Accepted or normalized range Important note
Visit age 0 to 240 months Rows are sorted by age, and the latest duplicate age is kept.
Height 30 to 230 cm Used for height percentile, BMI, height velocity, and growth charts.
Weight 1 to 200 kg Used for weight percentile and BMI-for-age.
Height velocity floor 2 to 10 cm/year Feeds both the low-velocity flag and interval guardrail.
WHO-CDC transition marker 18 to 36 months Default is 24 months, matching the common chart handoff point.

The chart tabs mirror the numeric report. Growth Report Trend plots height, weight, and BMI percentiles against low and high reference lines. Height Velocity Trend plots observed interval velocity against the calculated guardrail, which helps separate a low latest percentile from a slowing interval pattern.

Limitations and Privacy Notes:

The report is useful for education, triage preparation, and handoff communication, but it is not a clinical growth-chart record.

  • Percentiles are estimates from the report model and should not replace official WHO or CDC chart calculations.
  • Birth history, gestational age, parental height, puberty timing, chronic illness, medication use, and measurement technique can change clinical interpretation.
  • The calculation runs in the browser, but growth data is sensitive. Do not include names, record numbers, or other identifiers in rows, shared links, screenshots, or exports.

Worked Examples:

Steady early-childhood series. Rows such as 0, 50.2, 3.3, 6, 66.1, 7.3, 12, 75.0, 9.1, 24, 86.8, 11.7, and 36, 95.7, 14.1 for a female reference produce values near 0 critical, 0 watch, Routine lane, and Follow-up 3 mo. The Velocity Interval Table shows the latest 24-36 month interval within the guardrail.

Linear-growth concern. A shorter two-visit series such as 24, 86.8, 11.7 and 36, 88.8, 12.8 can produce Urgent lane with two critical flags: Downward height band crossing and Low recent height velocity. The interval velocity is about 2.0 cm/year, below the default 4 cm/year floor, so the first follow-up step is to recheck the height measurements and visit ages.

Adiposity-focused review. Rows such as 24, 86.8, 11.7 and 36, 95.7, 18.0 can place the latest BMI percentile at the top of the model range and add watch flags for high weight percentile, elevated BMI percentile, and large weight percentile shift. With adiposity focus, the report can shorten follow-up to about 1.5 months, but the weight entry and height technique should be checked before treating the flag ledger as a care decision.

FAQ:

Can this diagnose a growth disorder or obesity?

No. It estimates percentiles, flags configured patterns, and creates a handoff report. Diagnosis needs validated charting, history, exam findings, measurement quality review, and professional judgment.

Why does the 24-month transition matter?

Around 24 months, U.S. practice commonly moves from WHO standards to CDC growth charts, and measurement may shift from recumbent length to standing height. A percentile change near that point can reflect the chart or technique change as well as growth.

Why can one critical flag make the lane urgent?

The default urgent critical threshold is one critical flag. Raising that threshold to two or three means the report waits for more critical signals before selecting Urgent lane.

What row format should I paste?

Use one row per visit in the order age in months, height in centimeters, and weight in kilograms, such as 36, 95.7, 14.1. Headers, missing columns, or unit text inside the row can cause a row error.

Why are my velocity results missing or wrong?

The velocity table needs at least two valid visits with increasing ages. Check duplicate ages, reversed rows, mixed height units, and pasted spreadsheet columns before interpreting a low or missing interval.

Glossary:

Anthropometric index
A growth measure that combines body size with age, sex, or both, such as BMI-for-age.
Percentile band
A broad chart region around common markers such as the 3rd, 15th, 50th, 85th, and 97th percentile.
Height velocity
Annualized height gain between two visits, reported in centimeters per year.
Guardrail
The comparison line used to decide whether an interval's observed height velocity is lower than expected.
WHO-CDC transition
The common U.S. handoff from WHO standards before age 2 to CDC growth charts after age 2.

References: