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Sex differences in weight in infancy and the British 1990 national growth standards

^a Department of Child Health, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead NE8 3EB, ^b Department of Psychology, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE

Correspondence to: Dr Wright.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine if there is a sex difference in infancy in the new British national standards for weight (based on data from 1990).
Design: Weight data in a birth cohort were compared with the 1990 standards and Tanner and Whitehouse (1966) standards up to age 12 months.
Setting: Newcastle upon Tyne.
Subjects: 3418 term infants.
Results: Our cohort showed a mean difference in standard deviation scores of 0.42 between boys and girls (P<0.0001) when compared with the 1990 standards. Two and a half times as many girls as boys had weights below the 3rd centile during the first year, with an equivalent excess of boys above the 97th centile (P<0.0001). Similar results were found with Tanner and Whitehouse standards.
Conclusions: These differences could result in substantial sex bias in the identification of poor growth in early childhood. The standards need modification.

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