📏 Growth
Are they growing well?
Enter their weight and height and compare them with the World Health Organization charts. It’s calculated on your phone: we don’t send anything.
Their progress
What matters most isn’t one number, but that they follow their own line over time. The gray lines are the 3rd, 15th, 50th, 85th and 97th percentiles.
| Date | Age | Weight (kg) | Height (cm) |
|---|
Does eating little mean growing poorly?
Not always. Many children who eat very few foods grow well, because they eat enough of what they do accept. What you need to watch is their growth line and that they aren’t missing vitamins and minerals.
Bring it up with their pediatrician if…
- Their height or weight drops to a lower line: for example, from the 50th percentile to the 15th and then the 3rd.
- The calculator shows something outside the expected range.
- They lose weight or stop growing for several months.
- They limp, don’t want to walk, have leg pain or bleeding gums. They may be low on vitamin C, even if they aren’t thin. See a doctor soon.
- They’re pale, very tired or get sick often (they may be low on iron).
- They have constipation or put things that aren’t food in their mouth.
What you can ask for
- That they weigh and measure your child every 6 months and plot it on their growth curve.
- Ask whether a complete blood count, ferritin (iron) and vitamin D tests are a good idea.
- A visit with a pediatric dietitian, to cover what’s missing using what they do eat.
- A multivitamin only if the pediatrician recommends it, and at the dose they say: too much of some vitamins also causes harm.
This calculator isn’t a diagnosis. Their pediatrician is the one who interprets the measurements together with everything else.
What you can do
- Hold them and weigh yourselves together; then weigh yourself alone and subtract.
- Same time of day, light clothing and the scale on a hard floor.
- Height: no shoes, heels against the wall, a flat book on their head and a mark.
- If they won’t let you today, try again tomorrow.
Read what it says
Weighing Matti is almost impossible. He won’t stay still on the scale for a second. So Dad picks him up, and they weigh themselves together: 98.5 kg. Then Dad weighs himself alone: 77.9 kg. The difference is Matti’s weight: 20.6 kg. With that number, check his growth in our free calculator. If they won’t let you, it isn’t your fault: there are tricks.
The scale trick
Won’t let you weigh them?
Weigh yourself holding them, then weigh yourself alone, and subtract. That’s how we do it with Matti.
The videos are narrated in Spanish, with subtitles; the English transcript is under each one. You can download them and send them on WhatsApp.
How to measure at home, even if they won’t cooperate
- Weight: if they won’t stand on the scale alone, weigh yourself holding them and then weigh yourself alone. The difference is their weight.
- Always weigh at the same time, in light clothing, with the scale on a hard floor.
- Height: no shoes, back and heels against the wall. Put a flat book on their head, mark with a pencil and measure with a tape.
- Make it a game: “Let’s see how much you’ve grown!”. If they won’t let you today, try another day.
- Children under 2 are measured lying down.
Sources: WHO Child Growth Standards (0 to 5 years) and WHO Growth Reference (5 to 19 years). Weight-for-age only exists up to age 10; after that, body mass index is used.