Growth charts

Question 1

Why do we monitor growth?

Answer 1

• Public health - screening and surveillance

- Clinical practice - assess health and nutrition; diagnose and monitor disease

Question 2

How do we measure growth?

Answer 2

• Weight
• Height
• Head circumference
• Plot on growth chart - shows normal range of measurements
• Normal healthy children follow a line

Question 3

What are normal growth trends?

Answer 3

• Rate of growth highest in first year of life
• Lowest around primary school age
• Rises again at puberty
• Falls right down when puberty ends

Question 4

What factors affect growth?

Answer 4

• Nutrition - main influence perinatally
• Genetics - increasingly important with age
• Hormones (GH, TH, sex steroids) - increasingly important with age
• Timing of puberty - can cause deviations from growth line
• Disease

Question 5

Give 5 problems you can have with growth

Answer 5

• Faltering growth - used in young children, weight that is crossing down the centiles
• Short stature - short child not meeting their height potential
• Underweight - has a BMI less than 2nd centile for age and gender
• Overweight - has a BMI above 91st centile for age and gender
• Obesity - has a BMI over 98th centile for age and gender

Question 6

What is BMI?

Answer 6

• Weight/height measure
• NOT a measure of adiposity
• Affected by other factors such as muscle mass
• Need to adjust for age so use a centile chart