Abstract

Objective: To assess growth patterns of nine-year- old children, some of whom had foetal growth restriction.

Method: 75 nine year olds (41 were IUGR infants) were weighed and measured at birth, at one year, at two years and at nine years. Using general linear models for continuous data, changes in weight z scores were used to quantify growth rate between birth and nine years of age.

Results: IUGR children were smaller at birth (weight z score –2.1 vs. 0.2; p < 0.0001) but showed a greater increase in their weight between birth and nine years (change of weight z score 1.5 vs.0.4; p = 0.001). At the age of Nine years the weight, height and BMI z scores were lower in IUGR children (weight z score –0.4 vs. 0.6;p< 0.0001, height z score –0.5 vs. 0; p = 0.0016, BMI z score -0.2 vs. 0.7; p = 0.0017). The predictors of these differences are IUGR, birth weight and maternal and paternal heights.

Conclusion: IUGR infants grow faster but remain shorter and lighter than their normal counterparts i.e. they fail to fully catch up by nine years.