Height, Weight, and Skeletal Maturity in the First Five Years of Life

The metacarpal index of infants.

“…The sum of the lengths is divided by the sum of the breadths, as measured at the midpoint of each metacarpal. Sinclair's measurements were carried out mainly on adults, and it is not known if they are relevant to babies, or to children before the appearance of secondary ossification centres in the metacarpals.The aim of this study was to obtain values for the metacarpal index of children aged 2 years and under, and to compare the normal values with the indices of some infants who were thought to have long or short fingers.Material and Method Dr. Alice Stewart kindly allowed us to use x-rays of the hands of normal children who had been observed in a longitudinal study of growth at Oxford (Acheson, Kemp, and Parfit, 1955). The x-rays of both hands of 25 girls and 25 boys had been taken at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months.…”

“…Material and Method Dr. Alice Stewart kindly allowed us to use x-rays of the hands of normal children who had been observed in a longitudinal study of growth at Oxford (Acheson, Kemp, and Parfit, 1955). The x-rays of both hands of 25 girls and 25 boys had been taken at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months.…”

Sex-associated dififerences in skeletal maturity

“…Supporting evidence th at this view is correct has been reported for children soon after birth (K essler and Scott [1950]), during the preschool period (Acheson and H ew itt [1954], Acheson, K emp and Parfit [1955] and Acheson [1962]) and at later ages (Greulich [1951] and Greulich, Crismon and T urner [1953]). However, an adverse environm ent had no effect on the sexassociated difference in skeletal m aturation in a very large sample of Chinese children (Low, Chan, Chang and Lee [1964]).…”

The Effect of Tropical and Other Environmental Factors on Stature and Subcutaneous Fat in Kampala Nursery School Children

“…Their parents were in either pro-EFFECT OF TROPICAL CLIMATE ON SMALL CHILDREN fessional or skilled occupations. For purposes of comparison the heights of children in the Oxford Survey (Acheson et al, 1955) were used. The children in the Oxford Survey were also of superior social class (only 160% were in classes IV and V) and thus, although the Kampala families probably had a slightly higher standard of living than those in Oxford, the two groups were comparable.…”

“…An attempt was therefore made to compare the height, weight and amount of subcutaneous fat (based on arm measurements and skin fold using a Harpenden caliper) of European children aged 4-5years in Kampala with children of the same age in England (Acheson, Kemp and Parfit, 1955;Hammond, 1955) and with Kampala African children of the same ages.…”