Growth curves of Dutch children with Down's syndrome.
Swap in Down-syndrome-specific Dutch growth charts and pair them with early metabolic screens.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team measured height and weight of Dutch children with Down syndrome.
They built smooth growth curves from birth to age 20.
Charts show how these kids compare with Dutch and U.S. norms.
What they found
Dutch kids with Down syndrome are taller than U.S. peers.
They still fall more than two standard curves below Dutch norms.
After age 10, most land above the 90th weight-for-height line.
How this fits with other research
Sharp et al. (2010) used the same Dutch group and found adaptive skills plateau around age 12.
Bertapelli et al. (2016) later showed exercise-only plans fail to trim Down-syndrome weight, so growth charts alone are not enough.
Esparza Ocampo et al. (2025) adds that even normal-weight kids with Down syndrome already carry poor lipid numbers, so early diet and cardio screens matter.
Why it matters
Stop plotting Down-syndrome kids on general growth grids. Use these Dutch curves to spot drifting weight early. Pair the chart with lipid and sleep-apnea checks, then add diet and activity plans before the teen years.
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Join Free →Print the Dutch curves, mark the child’s current height and weight, and flag any dot above the 90th weight-for-height line for dietitian referral.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Two thousand and forty-five observations on height and weight were collected from 295 healthy Dutch children with Down's syndrome. In a cross-sectional analysis, means and standard deviations 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 full data set, 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 (P50 equals P75) but more than 2 SD shorter than normal Dutch children. Above the age of 10 years, the mean weight for height is above the P90 of normal children.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 1996 · doi:n/a