Growth charts among a selected sample of lebanese infants from birth until 2 years of age: association with breastfeeding and child rank in the family

Growth is a very important marker for child’s health, therefore monitoring it with growth charts is essential. The aim of this study is to develop specific growth charts for Lebanese children and to determine the influence of gender, breastfeeding duration and child’s rank in the family on children’s development and the corresponding growth charts. Thus, this retrospective study was performed in Lebanon on 400 infants from birth until 2 years of age. The data was collected from the files of four pediatricians, and analyzed on SPSS. The charts were established on Microsoft Excel. According to the results, the factor that improved infant growth is a breastfeeding duration of more than six months. After establishing the specific charts for Lebanese children, we can deduce that the growth of Lebanese children is similar to that of American children, for this reason the use of WHO charts may seem useful to evaluate the development and detect growth defects. Finally, further studies covering all the regions of Lebanon must be carried out to assess the growth of children and to ensure the accuracy of these results.