Humans are equal: lessons to learn from the World Health Organization prescriptive growth standards.

The World Health Organization (WHO) pioneered the Multicentre Growth Reference Study (MGRS) from 1997 to 2003 and generated a set of ‘Universal’ Child Growth Standards for children aged 0 to 5 years. Drawing on various observations and epidemiological studies,1,2 including the demonstration of similar growth patterns in breastfed infants from different ethnic origins,3 WHO MGRS growth experts were convinced that all children could eventually grow equally when allowed to do so in an unrestricted healthy environment. As opposed to developing regular population-based ‘growth references’, children were meticulously selected for MGRS in order to produce data to represent ideal infant and child growth. In 2006, the WHO Child Growth Standards so generated were launched and it was hoped that would be adopted by policymakers from all nations as ‘prescriptive standards’ for implementing health care measures conducive to optimal child growth. As such, these Growth Standards could also serve as aids to child advocates negotiating improvement conditions for child populations not exhibiting the prescribed growth patterns.