Child Weight 3y by Height

Weight and Height of a Three-Year-Old Child

By 36 months, the WHO Child Growth Standards (2006) are still the international reference for judging weight against height. The Z-score formula Z = (x − M) / SD takes the measurement you recorded and places it next to the median (M) and standard deviation (SD) for the child's sex and age. Those values come from the LMS tables, where L stands for skewness, M for the median and S for the coefficient of variation.

At exactly 3 years, the WHO medians land around 14.3 kg and 95 cm for boys and 13.9 kg and 94 cm for girls. When height-for-age drops below −2 SD, there's a risk of stunting (baixa estatura). Weight-for-height below −2 SD signals wasting, and anything above +2 SD points toward overweight or obesity. Here in Brazil, the Ministry of Health keeps tabs on child growth through SISVAN (Sistema de Vigilância Alimentar e Nutricional) and reports built to comply with eMAG accessibility rules.

Applications

You'll see it in pediatric consultations, daycare nutritional surveillance, school health programs and PHC (Atenção Primária) outpatient clinics. The weight-for-height table gives clinicians and parents a way to catch early deviations, set up nutritional follow-up and pass a case to a specialist once Z-scores cross a critical threshold. The curves never tell the whole story on their own, so genetic factors, a history of prematurity and any chronic condition belong in the picture too.

FAQ

What is a Z-score? It counts how many standard deviations a value falls from the WHO median for the child’s sex and exact age. The band of ±2 SD takes in roughly 95 % of healthy children.

Should I use BMI at age 3? You can, as long as you read it against height-for-age and weight-for-age rather than on its own. By itself, BMI tells you much less in early childhood.

Disclaimer. This is an educational reference, nothing more. For clinical decisions, rely on the assessment of a pediatrician or a licensed pediatric nutritionist instead.