| Objective To study the shifts in percentiles of length and weight during the first 2 years of life and analyse the factors affecting children's length.Methods To collect and analyse the data about linear and weight gains in 331 children. All the children were singletons and terms at birth, and were ruled out congenital abnormalities and the disease which may cause growth deviation. The values of length and weight at 1 to 2 month were refered as the basic measurements. On average, 8 length and weight measuremets per person were obtained from 1～2 months after birth until 2 years, which means at least one measurement every 2 months during 1st year of life, once every 6 months in the 2rd year . The children with chronic diseases and malnutrition were ruled out too. The data of children from America CDC(2000) were used as the references. Growth of"Catch-up"and"Catch-down"was defined as the percentiles shifted across at least one main percentile. The factors influencing the shifts in percentiles of linear growth were analyzed through the ordinal logistic regression model. Father's height, mother's height, children's basic length of different children were analyzed through ANOVA of SPSS 17.0.Results (1) During the first 2 years, 179 children(accounting for 54.08%) with 246 measurements catch-up growth and 56 children(accounting for 16.92%) with 63 measurements catch-down growth; (2)Shifts of linear growth in 3 to 6 month,7 to 12 month and 13 to 24 month are correlated to mother's height and children's basic length, meanwhile 7 to 12 month correlated to father's height .Conclusions (1)The linear growth of 2/3 of children under two shifted;(2)The physical growth at birth only reflects fetus growth but not after-birth growth; (3)Basic length, heritage, and the age of childhood onset should be taken into consideration when assessing the shifts of linear growth during the first 2 years; (4) Body length is a comparatively reliable index to assess the growth.
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