[WHO child growth standards for children 0-5 years and the possibility of their implementation in Poland].

The origin of the WHO Child Growth Standards dates back to the early 1990s and the meticulous evaluation of the NCHS growth reference, which had been recommended for international use since the late 1970s. The review documented the deficiencies of the reference and led to a plan for developing new growth charts that would depict how children should grow in all countries rather than merely describing how they grew at a particular time and place. The outcome of this plan was the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study (1997-2003), which applied rigorous methods of data collection and which serves as a model of collaboration for conducting international research. The study provides a solid foundation for developing a standard because the sample is based on healthy the mothers of the children selected for the construction of the standards engaged in fundamental health promoting practices, namely breastfeeding and non smoking. Other important features of the study are that it included children from a diverse set of countries (Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway, Oman and USA) and explicitly identified breastfeeding as the biological norm and established the breastfed child as the normative model for growth and development. By replacing the NCHS reference, which is based on children from a single country, with one based on an international group of children, the new standards recognize that children all the world over grow similarly when their health and care needs are met. The WHO Child Growth Standards provide a technically robust tool for assessing the well-being of infants and young children. The standards depict normal growth under optimal environmental conditions and can be used to assess children everywhere, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status and type of feeding. In the paper the current status regarding growth reference (norms) in Poland and activities undertaken for implementation of the WHO Child Growth Standards in this country are presented.