What are centile charts?

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What exactly is a centile chart?

Your health care professional will regularly record your child's growth and plot this on the centile charts in 'the little red book'. It's really important to remember that all babies are different, they are all completely unique - even when compared to their siblings.

Boys and girls tend to have different charts, because boys are generally heavier, and taller than girls.

The percentile lines on the graph are curved and these show the average height and weight for your baby at different ages.

So what does it mean when somebody says that your baby is in the 75th percentile? Well that means, out of 200 hypothetical babies of the same age, your baby is bigger than 75 of those babies.

Also your baby's height and weight may not follow a percentile line exactly, they can easily go up and down a percentile - this is perfectly normal.

A healthy child can fall anywhere on the graph, it doesn't matter if they are 95 percentile or the 15th percentile, what's really important is that they are growing at a consistent rate over time.

As always, if you have any concerns or worries over your child's development, please make sure you consult a healthcare professional for advice, hope this helps.