This is a descriptive and analytic study of growth and nutrition indices in 1624 children under 5 years of age who received servicesfromPHCcentersknownasHealthHouses) in Islamshahr, Qom and Rey catchment areas.We used data from family health files to construct standardized Z-scores for the following indices: weight for age,heightfor age, and weight for height Analysis of data showed that : some 5.4 percent of children were underweight (1.6% , 4.4% , 6.6% in Islamshahr, ReyandQomerespectively). Overall, 24.4 percent were suffering from low height for age (stunting) (11.5% , 19.1% , 28.6% in Islamshahr, Rey and Qom respectively) and 4.45 percent of children had low weight for height (wasting) 6.3% , 2.2% , 5% in Islamshahr, Rey and Qom).There was a statistically significant relationship between low weight and :a) higher birth order (p= 0.009).b) the presence of frequent plateaus (0.003) and downslopes (p=0.01) on the child's growthchart (p=0.01). In Qom, there was also a significantly greater risk of low weight for children with longer nursing periods (p= 0.0005) and those who spent more time on exclusive breastfeeding (p= 0.005).

Keywords: Growth monitoring, Weight for age, Height for age, Weight for Height

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