Adiposity rebound in early childhood: understanding body mass index percentiles and monitoring on growth charts to be healthy

Key messageHeight, weight, and body mass index percentiles should be tracked in routine childhood health checkups to address the age of adiposity rebound in early childhood.Comprehensive interventional lifestyle counselling in primary practice after growth and nutritional status assessments might be an early, effective strategy for preventing obesity and decreasing the double burden of disease in later life.Therefore, there is an urgent need for a cooperative and supportive health care system. Growth and nutrition indicatorsGrowth and development are hallmarks of pediatrics.Nutritional and growth statuses are assessed based on weight (W) and height (H).In the development of indi cators, sex and age are accounted for assessing H and W, as appropriate gains in H and W based on sex and age, and their relationship, expressed as body mass index (BMI), are essential for healthy growth.Most references, including those in Korea, provide growth charts for each sex. 1) W for age and W for H is recommended for very young children.However, W for age ignores H and W for H ignores age.This paper focuses on early childhood health checkups in subjects aged 24 months or older in Korea.Child malnutrition is a major public health issue and the "double burden of malnutrition" is an important global health issue. 2)Attention should be paid to both overweight and underweight conditions during early childhood and the patterns of malnutrition, especially faltering growth conditions, such as stunting or wasting, should be addressed in early childhood. 2)To maintain a healthy W (Stay Healthy), it is necessary to understand the two extremes of malnutrition and to use appropriate growth