[Individual variation in growth in healthy children--long-term study]

A wide range of variously intermingled individual curves of 159 Prague boys and girls is the result of systematic investigations of children from birth to the age of 20 years. The original group of 300 children was created in 1956-1960. All children are healthy and their growth curves display the normal range of variability. In the turmoil of lines a certain order and several basic types of growth can be differentiated. The most striking feature is the wide range due to marginal cases of short or tall stature. The common sign of all curves is the pubertal growth wave which begins in some sooner, in others later. The authors selected groups of children who at the age of 18 years were tallest and shortest and who started the pubertal accelerated growth early or late. These four groups comprising six children each (three of each sex) were subjected to growth analysis and it was revealed that the extreme types of growth can be readily explained genetically and that they can be differentiated already at the age of 4 or even 2 years and that children who markedly differ from the average as regards height and longitudinal measurements have widths and circumferential measurements closer or close to average values. Early maturing children are, as compared with late maturing ones, taller and more developed at the age of 11-14 years, their growth stops, however, sooner and in the end late maturing children catch up with them and some are even taller.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)