What does my Babies percentile mean?

Professor of Pediatrics Tamiko Jordan breaks down percentiles and what they mean.
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What does my Babies percentile mean?

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- So growth charts are a great way for you and your doctor to compare the growth of your baby over time, and compare them to babies of the same age, whether here in the US with the CDC growth charts, or all over the world with the WHO growth charts. So you might be wondering what it means if your doctor says your baby is a certain percentile. The great way to do that is to imagine a room of 100 babies the same age as yours, all normal, all healthy. But there would be a natural variation. Some would be bigger than others. Say your doctor says your baby's weight is the 25% percentile. You can imagine that in that room of 100 babies the same age as yours, your baby would weigh more than 25 of those babies and less than 75. This is a great way to compare your baby, compared to other babies of the same age. It's also a great way for your doctor and you to follow your baby's growth over time, and the rate that they're growing. We would worry if a baby's weight, say, would start to flatline or not go up at the rate we would expect, or if they were starting to cross the percentile lines, and be growing too fast.


Professor of Pediatrics Tamiko Jordan breaks down percentiles and what they mean.

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Tamiko Jordan, MD

General Pediatrician, Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Dr. Jordan was born in Riverside, California and received her medical degree from Saint Louis University School of Medicine.  She completed her pediatric residency at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and has since worked in many different settings.  Currently she is an attending pediatrician at the Altamed General Pediatric Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she teaches pediatric residents and sees her own patients in private practice.  She has been featured on ABC7 and FOX11 news as well as the Patt Morrison Show on 89.3 KPCC.  Her latest project is the asthma clinic at Altamed, where she can spend more time educating patients and parents about optimizing their asthma care and minimizing ER visits and lost school days.  

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Transcription: 

- So growth charts are a great way for you and your doctor to compare the growth of your baby over time, and compare them to babies of the same age, whether here in the US with the CDC growth charts, or all over the world with the WHO growth charts. So you might be wondering what it means if your doctor says your baby is a certain percentile. The great way to do that is to imagine a room of 100 babies the same age as yours, all normal, all healthy. But there would be a natural variation. Some would be bigger than others. Say your doctor says your baby's weight is the 25% percentile. You can imagine that in that room of 100 babies the same age as yours, your baby would weigh more than 25 of those babies and less than 75. This is a great way to compare your baby, compared to other babies of the same age. It's also a great way for your doctor and you to follow your baby's growth over time, and the rate that they're growing. We would worry if a baby's weight, say, would start to flatline or not go up at the rate we would expect, or if they were starting to cross the percentile lines, and be growing too fast.