Growth monitoring is a screening tool to diagnose nutritional, chronic systemic, and endocrine diseases at an early stage. It has been suggested that growth monitoring has the potential for a significant impact on mortality even in the absence of nutritional supplementation or education.Monitoring the growth of a child requires taking the same measurements at regular intervals, approximately at the same time of the day, and observing how they change. A single measurement only indicates the child’s size at that moment. Growth monitoring focuses on children less than 5 years of age. At Unique Children Clinic, Dr. Ashish Vora focuses on the growth monitoring of the child.
Aims of Growth Monitoring:
- To identify children with growth deviation i.e., undernutrition and overnutrition and to identify diseases and conditions that manifest through abnormal growth.
- Secondary Aims: To discuss health promotion related to feeding, hygiene, immunization, and other aspects of the child’s health behavior; education of parents to allay their anxiety about their child’s growth.At the first visit, the child’s name, date of birth, and other details should be entered on the growth chart. All the points on the growth chart should be marked only as dots and not circles around the dot. The height and weight should be recorded (and head circumference till 3 years) and plotted on the chart. At subsequent visits, join the dot up to the previous dot.
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