Baby growth charts in use across NHS by health visitors are out of date, based on unsuitable data and could cause obesity shock!

• This is not news.
• Revised growth charts for breast-fed infants are available free to parents from the Child Health Foundation; phone and ask for the A5 Breast From Birth PCHR insert.
• In that case, why are health authorities being so slow to adopt and/or purchase the new charts, and why are health visitors, who are well aware of this issue, still pressuring parents of children that measure low on the standard chart? (Some authorities are using or offering the newer charts - more info required.)
• The dread phrase “failure to thrive” - should it be bandied around by health visitors to unqualified and worried parents, and is its use more often perceived as a threat or accusation rather than a useful offer of help? Strict medical definition?
• What use growth charts anyway? (To offer clear guidance for undertrained health visitors, who then become overly reliant on an inflexible baseline? Common sense usually indicates whether a child is undernourished or has a serious problem. Plus: reported severe difficulties in obtaining access to good quality support for feeding issues - again, health visitors & NHS failing parents with top-down approach.)
• More horror stories.