Growth Charts and Their Uses

Question 1

What do we monitor Growth for?

Where is the monitoring written down?

Answer 1

• • Public health - Screening and Surveillance
  • Clinical practice - Assessment of health and nutrition, Diagnosis, and Monitoring of disease
• Growth diary

Question 2

MONITORING OF GROWTH:
Weight - How is this measured? What should be used?

Length - How is this measured? What should be used?

Height - How is this measured? What should be used?

Head circumference - How is this measured? What should be used?

BMI - How is this measured?

Answer 2

• Babies weighed naked, Children >2yrs can be weighed in clothes without shoes - Only Class III Clinical electronic scales should be used
• Measure naked - Use Length board/mat and 2 assessors
• Measure after 2yrs - No shoes, Ensure heels, bottom, back and head are touching the wall with eyes and ears at 90 degrees, Measure on expiration - Use Rigid rule/Stadiometer
• Measure where head circumference is widest - Use narrow plastic/disposable paper tape
• Weight against height measure, not a measure of adiposity

Question 3

GROWTH CHART:
How would you explain what the lines on a growth chart show?

If a boy was on the 25th percentile line, how would you explain this?

Answer 3

• “If we lined up 100 healthy boys of exactly the same age in order of size, the smallest would have a weight around the bottom line, and the heaviest around the top line.”
• “In a group of 100 boys, there would be about 75 boys heavier than him and about 25 lighter than him”

Question 4

GROWTH PATTERNS:
What is Growth affected by?

When is Height velocity highest?

Answer 4

• • Nutrition
  • Genetics and Hormones
  • Disease
  • Timing of puberty - can cause deviations in the growth chart
• Early infancy and Puberty - “2 growth spurts”

Question 5

GROWTH PROBLEMS:
What is Faltering growth?

What is Short Stature?

What is Underweight?

What is Overweight?

What is Obesity?

Answer 5

• Weight CROSSING DOWN the percentile lines
• Short child not meeting their height potential
• BMI <2ND percentile for age and gender
• BMI >91ST percentile for age and gender
• BMI >98TH percentile for age and gender