Longitudinal growth study of Tasmanian children. 2. The seven-year-olds.

A longitudinal growth study of Tasmanian children, involving 1,114 infants born between September 1, 1967, and August 31, 1968, has continued into the seventh year during 1974-1975, when measurements of height and weight were recorded on the 898 remaining children that could be traced. A portion of the results is presented here. The main findings is that a high percentage of children who are overweight at the age of three years is likely to be overweight at seven years. Birth weight is not an important factor in determining the weight of a seven-year-old. Children over the 90th percentile at age three years are, on the average, more than 5 kg heavier at seven years than children between the 10th and 90th percentiles at three years. The seven-year-old weights themselves do not appear to have altered in the past two decades, being virtually identical to those in the 1957 Standard Tables for Australian Children.