[Assessment of weight and height using a microcomputer]

By a simple microcomputer program, children's pondostatural growth rate status can be assessed, after having introduced the birth date, sex, and current weigh an height. Starting from these data, the computer displays the existing deviations (expressed as a percent) between the current an mean height for the age, and between the current and relative weight, ie, the mean weight which corresponds to the current height. This program can show, through only two values, the present growth rate status in a quick and accurate way, easy to grasp by the child and his/her family; it also permits a clear comparison to be established among ongoing measurements. The ideal growth chart, build from this values, becomes oversimplified into an horizontal line, drawn at the point level of the 0% deviation. Any existing growth trend is expressed by the upward of downward deviation, relative to the aforementioned horizontal line.