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

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 (PConclusions: These differences could result in substantial sex bias in the identification of poor growth in early childhood. The standards need modification.