A child's hunger does not track how big they are — it tracks how fast they are growing right now. Move the age slider and watch centimetres-per-year, kilograms-per-year, and estimated daily energy recompute together. The crash at two and the surge at thirteen stop looking like behaviour and start looking like arithmetic.
Growth velocity, birth to 18
Energy per kilogram of body weight
Total daily energy climbs almost every year of childhood. Energy per kilogram runs the other way — highest in infancy, then falling through the school years toward adult levels. That falling number is what a shrinking toddler appetite is actually reporting.
Watch the step at age 3. The DRI switches here from the 12–36-month equation (weight only) to the 3–18-year equations (weight, height and activity), and the two fits do not join smoothly. Compare per-kilogram values within one equation, not across the boundary — a real limitation of using reference equations rather than a real change in the child.
Growth and appetitemove the age slider to begin
Stage, velocity and the energy equation all follow this slider.
Weight and height start at the population reference median for the chosen age and snap back whenever you change age. Nudge them to see how the equation responds.
—kcal/day
—kcal per kg
—cm/year
—kg/year
Reference medians describe what is typical in a population — they are not targets, and children grow along many different healthy curves. A single point on a growth chart says very little; what clinicians follow is a child's own curve over time. BMI-for-age is a population screening tool: it does not measure body fat, fitness or health, it cannot distinguish muscle from fat, and it shifts during the normal body-composition changes of puberty. Nothing here is advice for an individual child.