Research by a UC Davis nutritionist who specializes in the health of mothers and children is reflected in new international growth standards for children, which will be announced Thursday, April 27, by the World Health Organization.

Kathryn Dewey, a UC Davis nutrition professor, directed the only United States research site for the worldwide project, which revised growth charts for children under the age of 5. Her research team collected data on the growth of hundreds of children in the Davis area for use in developing the new growth standards.

The overall project, which involved more than 8,000 children, also looked at the growth patterns of children from Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway and Oman.

The new standards are intended to help parents, doctors, policymakers and child advocates better evaluate when nutrition and health-care needs of children are not being met. The standards should help identify children who are undernourished, overweight or experiencing growth-related problems. They reflect how children should be expected to grow and develop if their basic needs are met.

Earlier growth charts were based on data from a limited sample of children from the United States and had a number of technical and biological drawbacks, according to the World Health Organization. For example, the old standards were based on a combination of formula-fed and breast-fed children. Dewey and other nutritionists found that those growth standards did not accurately reflect the growth patterns of breast-fed children.

The new standards are based on the breast-fed child as the norm for growth and development. All children evaluated in the studies that produced the new standards were breast-fed and received complementary foods as appropriate. They also all received good health care, including vaccinations and immunizations, and had nonsmoking mothers.

Dewey has been researching maternal and infant nutrition for more than 20 years. Her work includes studies on infant growth and nutrition, the impact of nutrition and exercise on nursing moms, breast-feeding and post-childbirth weight loss in mothers, and growth problems of infants and children in developing countries.

Complete information on the new growth standards will be available April 27 at the World Health Organization Web site at http://www.who.int/en/.