Current therapy for CD in the UK is less likely than previously to involve the use of long-term glucocorticoids.WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: Despite advances in therapy, short stature and slow growth continue to be encountered in children with CD.  There is a need for simple and consistent definitions of growth that can identify poor growth in children with chronic disease.METHODS: The anthropometric and treatment details of 116 children (68 male) with a mean (range) age at diagnosis of 10.8 years (4.9-15.5) and a mean age at maximum follow-up (MF) of 15.4 years (9.4-19.3) were studied retrospectively at diagnosis (T0), at 1 (T1), 2 (T2) and 3 years (T3) after diagnosis and at MF.RESULTS: At T0, mean height SD score (HtSDS) was -0.5 (-3.3 to 2.6) compared to a mid-parental HtSDS of 0.2 (-2.0 to 01.4) (p=0.002).