Draft Australian Dietary Guidelines (PDF, 3MB) - Eat For Health

A3.1.1 Growth monitoring in the first few years of lifeMeasurement and recording of the growth of infants and young children has been standardpractice in Australia for decades. Growth monitoring remains the best method of assessingnutritional status and overall health at the community and primary care level. Commonly ‘Weightfor Age’ and ‘Length/Height for Age’ growth reference charts are used. The most common growthreference in use in Australia was derived from US data (CDC 2000 [952]). The rate of growth isthe most important factor, although if growth is above the 95th percentile or below the 5th, orcrosses these percentiles, further assessment is required. In the first months of life monitoring aninfant’s weight and using growth reference charts is one of the ways in which the adequacy ofbreastfeeding is assessed.The new WHO growth reference (2006) [950] is heavier than the older growth referencecurrently in use in Australia in the first six months of life. Care should be taken to adjust for thisdifference when assessing the growth of infants. The 2nd percentile of the new WHO chartequivalent to the 5th percentile on the old chart. It is important when using growth charts toremember that they are a tool, not a diagnostic instrument. The pattern of the infant’s growth,and in particular whether babies are crossing the centile channels as well as the position on thegrowth chart, are used in conjunction with clinical assessment in determining if there is a problem.A3.1.2 BMI using international reference standardsAn international reference (International Obesity Task Force) for defining overweight and obesityin children and adolescents were developed with data from six countries, and provide age and sexspecificBMI cut-off points for children and adolescents aged 2–18 years that correspond to adultBMI values of 25 kg/m 2 for overweight and 30 kg/m2 for obesity [712]. This method wasrecommended for use in the 2003 NHMRC Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents. BMI hasbecome increasingly accepted as a useful tool for identifying and monitoring obesity in children[947, 953-955].DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines- December 2011 164