a comparative study on growth indicators of children born with low birth weight and normal birth weight in 2 years after birth.

low birth weight ( lbw, birth weight<2500g) is a significant health problem of children. many studies have made it apparent that there is a direct relationship between low birth weight and infant motality. one of the most important measurements to prevent children morbidity is growth monitoring and the present study was set up to compare the growth indexes of 2 year old children born with low weight with those weighting 2500 g and more at birth ( mormal birth weight, nbw). this research is a retrospective cohort study and the samples include 218 two year old infants (109 lbw infants, 109 nbw infants). selection criteria for the lbw and nbw infants were factors such as having birth weight < 2500 gr in lbw group and 2500 –4000 in nbw group, absence of congenital anomalies , born from singleton pregnancies etc. needed data were collected in questionnaires by researcher and for this purpose the measurements of children weight , height and head circumference at ages in 2 years after birth that had been recorded in their health files were used. statistical analysis was carried out with help of t-test and x test. our findings revealed that the group of lbw children had a statistically significant lower body weight , shorter height, smaller head circumferences and lower weight – for- age, height –for –age and weight- for – height indexes in two year children than the group of nbw children. moreover, the weight percentile of lbw children at 2 years of age was lower than one in the nbw group . the data suggest that low birth weight adversely affects on child’s growth in early life. therefore , lbw infants require special considerations about growth follow up and monitoring after birth.