Reply #38: There are older charts and newer charts

[StatGirl]

The oldest standard I know of is the NCHS 1978 charts, which were based on a sample of mostly formula-fed babies from Iowa.

In 2000, CDC came out with a revised set of charts which were based on a larger sample and more sophisticated models, see http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/clinical_charts.htm, but I think the infant sample was still primarily bottle-fed. (It may have been the same set of kids out of Iowa; I'm not sure.)

Around the same time, the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study was collecting data on breastfed children of well-off parents at a number of different sites around the world. The idea was to chart the growth trajectory of children who had all the educational, nutritional, and health care advantages and were breastfed according to recommendations. It was already known that breastfed and formula-fed children had different growth trajectories over the first two years of life, particularly in weight. See http://www.who.int/childgrowth/mgrs/en / for information on that.

The new charts and tables, based on breastfed children, came out a couple of years ago, and both breastfed and formula-fed children can be measured against this reference.