Growth Charts

We have now arranged a lovely bright yellow Mozambican Health Centre card for Samuel, and while it has confused us with yet another schedule of vaccinations (to compare with the Canadiana and the Portuguese charts), it has also given us a little chart to plot his height/weight etc on. Now, as it turns out these charts are international, so are all based on the CDC ones from the Unoted States. Being me, I of course had already downloaded them while in Portugal. But looking at them, there are some interesting differences - while the Portuguese one has the 7 percentile graphs from the 5th-10th-25th-50th-75th-90th, the Mozambican one has only 3 lines on it - the 50th percentile, the 3rd, and one tracing the curve at two-thirds of minimum weight, ie at severe malnutrition. There isn't even a place to graph your kid if s/he is over the 50th percentile. Now while Samuel is shifting a few lines down what with his present eating difficulties, this kind of chart really gives you a sense of perspective...