Growth charts for breastfed babies.

1. World Health Organization, Switzerland. MD, PhD Medical Officer, Department of Nutrition Study Coordinator. 2. MD, PhD in Epidemiology. Professor, School of Medicine, Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPEL), Brazil. Growth charts are essential items in the pediatric toolkit. Their value resides in helping to determine the degree to which physiological needs for growth and development are being met during the important childhood period. However, as rightly pointed out in the article by Marques and colleagues published in this issue,1 the interpretation of the growth trajectory of breastfed infants, commonly used to assess lactation adequacy and to advise on when to introduce complementary foods, is highly dependent on the reference data used. The accuracy of feeding advice may be erroneous if the reference growth charts used do not adequately represent the physiological growth pattern of breastfed infants.