Standing height was taken without shoes, the child standing with his heels and back in contact with an upright wall. His head was held so that he looked straight forward with the lower borders of the eye sockets in the same horizontal plane as the external auditory meati (i.e. Frankfurt plane). A right-angled block (preferably counterweighted) was then slid down the wall until its bottom surface touched the child's head, and a scale fixed to the wall was read.

During the measurement the child was told to stretch his neck and trunk to be as tall as possible, care taken to prevent his heels coming off the ground. Gentle but firm traction upwards was applied by the measurer under the mastoid processes to help the child stretch. In this way the variation in height from morning to evening was minimised. Standing height was recorded to the nearest 0.1 cm.

Supine length was taken on a flat surface, with the infant lying on his back. One observer held his head in contact with a board at the top of the table and another straightened the legs, turned the feet at right-angles to the legs and brought a sliding board in contact with the child's heel.

Weight was taken with the lightest clothings or nude, recorded to the nearest 0.1kg.