Growth curves of Dutch children with Down's syndrome

Two thousand and forty-five observations an height and weight were collected from 295 healthy Dutch children with Down's syndrome. in a cross-sectional analysis, means and standard deviation's were calculated per age-class, and subsequently smoothed, resulting, in age references between 0 and 20 years. Each child contributed only once in every age class. In a subgroup in whom more than four measurements were available before puberty, quadratic regression functions were determined on the basis of the the full data st, as well as for individual children separately (54 boys and 25 girls). The average coefficients of the individual regression functions were almost identical to the coefficients of the regression line through all data, indicating that the reference curve for the mean height based on cross-sectional analysis adequately represents longitudinal growth during childhood. Dutch children with Down's syndrome are taller than their US peers (P-50 equals P-75) but More than 2 SD shorter than normal Dutch children. Above the age of 10 years, the mean weight for height is above the P-90 of normal children.