Our growth chart will calculate your child's percentile and show you how their growth is progressing. You'll be able to see how your child compares in height and weight to other children of their age and gender.
Enter your child's gender, height, weight and head circumference, and our growth chart tool will calculate their percentile for each. This tool is for children under age 2 and is based on World Health Organization data for kids in that age group. You can also find out how tall your child is likely to be as an adult with our Child Height Predictor.
What is a growth chart percentile?
Percentiles show how your child's weight, height, and head circumference compare to other children who are the same age and gender as them. For example, if your child's weight is in the 20th percentile, they weigh more than 20 percent of children, and less than 80 percent of children, their same age and gender. Or being at the 50th percentile for height means that 50 percent of children of the same age and gender are taller and 50 percent are shorter than your child.
Any percentile between the 3rd and 97th percentiles is considered normal. The most important thing is not what percentile your child is on, but that your baby is growing along their percentile curve over time.
How to use your baby's growth chart
In your baby's first year of life, you'll be seeing their doctor once a month. At each appointment, your child will be weighed and measured to be sure that they are growing well. Your pediatrician will plot your baby's weight, height, and head circumference on a growth chart to track their growth against expected growth curves.
If your baby's height, weight and head circumference are all growing along their growth curve, it's a sign that they are healthy.
Don't be worried if your child isn't on a high percentile. There's a wide range of normal, and your baby's measurements now don't necessarily reflect what size they'll be as an adult.
Our growth percentile calculator is an educational tool only. It's not a substitute for your doctor appointments. At these visits, your pediatrician will determine whether your child is following a healthy growth pattern over time.
Accurate measurements of your baby's growth are best left to the professionals. But if you want to see how your baby is growing between appointments, here's how to get estimates at home.
Taking your baby's weight
If you want to see how your baby is growing between doctor’s visits, here's how to get a fairly accurate weight at home:
- Undress your baby completely (remove the diaper too) and step on a scale while you're holding your child. Record that weight.
- Set your baby down and weigh yourself. Subtract your own weight from your combined weight with your baby and record that number.
- This isn't as accurate as weighing your baby at the doctor's office, but it's a good estimate of how much your little one weighs.
If you're worried about your baby's weight gain, speak to your baby's pediatrician at your next visit. Don't change their diet without consulting your doctor first.
Measuring your baby's height
Before your baby can stand and walk on their own, height is often recorded as "length" – that is, how long your baby is from the top of the head to their heel while lying down.
If you want to measure your baby's length at home between doctor visits, here's how:
- Lay your baby down on a flat surface and stretch a measuring tape from the top of the head to the bottom of the heel. Since babies' knees naturally bend a bit, you may need a second person to stretch out their legs while you take the measurement.
- Record your child's length to the nearest tenth of a centimeter. Your record might be a little different than the doctor's, but that's okay.
Measuring your baby's head circumference
Your baby's doctor will measure head circumference for the first two years of your child’s life to make sure your baby's brain is growing at a healthy rate.
You can measure your baby's head circumference at home too, but it can be hard to do accurately. Here's how to get a good estimate:
- Wrap a flexible measuring tape around the widest part of your baby's head, just above the eyebrows and ears and around the back, where the head slopes out from the neck.
- Take the measurement three times (your baby may be wiggly, which could make getting an accurate measurement tough) and use the largest measurement to the nearest tenth of a centimeter.
