Insufficient weight gain under 3 years of age correlates with short stature in school-aged children.

Karlberg developed the infancy-childhood-puberty (ICP) growth model, which describes human growth from the latter half of intrauterine life to adolescence (1). The components of infancy, childhood, and puberty periods depend on nutrition, GH, and the synergism between sex steroids and GH, respectively. The periods of infancy and childhood are defined as the durations from the latter half of intrauterine life to approximately 3 yr of age and from approximately 1.5 yr of age to adolescence, respectively. Some children show insufficient weight gain at approximately 1 yr of age, just after weaning. If such children show inadequate weight gain because of poor dietary intake, their growth velocity will also decrease, especially in those younger than 3 yr. We hypothesized that insufficient weight gain in infants and toddlers may not only lead to underweight but also to short stature during childhood, and that this trend will follow through adolescence. This hypothesis has not previously been validated. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between height and incremental weight gain in children under 3 yr of age and in children with ages ranging from 3 yr to pubertal age. The data presented below represent the initial auxological findings regarding the relationship between weight gain and stature in children.