Healthy babies may miss the mark on infant growth charts simply because current charts don't accurately reflect the growth patterns of breast-fed babies, reports UC Davis nutrition professor Kathryn Dewey in a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics. "One of the most striking differences revealed by this study is that healthy, breast-fed babies tend to grow more rapidly than predicted by growth charts during the first two to three months; then their rate of growth slows compared to that of formula-fed infants," says Dewey of her extensive, international study. While this pattern is normal for a breast-fed baby, it might appear that the child's growth is faltering and the mother might unnecessarily be counseled to cease breast-feeding and switch to formula-feeding. This is of particular concern in developing countries where baby formula is expensive and alternative foods may not be sanitary, Dewey says. Instead, new charts should be developed to represent the growth patterns of breast-fed babies, she suggests.