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FlowerGrowth: Normal Rate
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 Children's Hospital Primary Care Center  
What is considered a normal growth rate?
Growth not only involves length and weight of a body, but also includes internal growth and development. A child's brain will grow the most during the first five years of life, reaching 90 percent of its final size. Growth also affects different parts of the body at different rates; the head reaches almost its entire size by age 1. Throughout childhood, a child's body becomes more proportional to other parts of his/her body. Growth is complete between the ages of 16 and 18, at which time the growing ends of bones fuse.

Normal growth is categorized in a range used by pediatricians to gauge how a child is growing. The following are some average ranges of weight and height, based on growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):