This page is about GROWTH of Children. It gives detail account of Weight and Height Records .Growth is dependant on many factors like age , Weight according to Height and Yearly incriments of Weight and height...

                           GROWTH RECORD
Parents are always anxious to know how their children are growing whether they are normal (or) not. Most of the parents become unnecessarily anxious about their children's growth because of false belief like :-
* When thin build child is labelled as weak.
* When comparison is done with same age group.
* When child is not eating properly (according to     parent's standard)

CHILD IS AN INDIVIDUAL AND THERE IS INDIVIDUAL VARIATION AND SAME AGE GROUP CHILDREN WEIGHT & HEIGHT MAY DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY.

HOW TO EVALUATE ?
Following are the ways to monitor growth of your child :-

1. Weight & Height Record
Wt. & Height according to age is a useful guide but not the best way (see inside). There is wide range at any given all.

2. Weight according to Height
It is more acurate than agewise weight (details see inside)

3. Weight & Height Gain
It is the best indicator of the growth. It is very important to serially record weight & height at regular interval to know exactly whether your child is growing normally or not.

1. WEIGHT AND HEIGHT ACCORDING TO AGE

Normal weight & height varies child to child, at any given age. Following chart shows the normal range of weight & height, to let you whether your child is normal.

           GIRLS                                          BOYS
Weight          Height       AGE         Height          Weight
   (kg)            (cm)                              (cm)               (kg)
2.4 - 3.8 --- 45 -   53    Birth --- 46 - 54   --- 2.5 - 4.2
5.5 - 8.8 --- 62 -   70      6mo. --- 63 - 72   --- 6.2 - 9.5
   8 - 11   --- 69 -   79     1 yr. --- 72   - 81   --- 8.4 - 12
10 - 14   --- 81 -   92     2 yr. --- 82 - 94   --- 11 - 15
11 - 16    --- 88 - 101    3 yr. --- 89 - 102 --- 12 - 17
13 - 20    --- 95 - 108     4 yr. --- 96 - 104 --- 14 - 20
14 - 22    --- 101 - 116    5 yr. --- 102 - 117 --- 15 - 23
16 - 26    --- 107 - 123    6 yr. --- 108 - 123 --- 17 - 26
18 - 30    --- 112 - 139    7 yr. --- 113 - 130 --- 19 - 30
20 - 35    --- 117 - 136    8 yr. --- 118 - 136 --- 21 - 35
22 - 41    --- 122 - 143    9 yr.   --- 123 - 142 --- 22 - 40
24 - 47    --- 128 - 149    10 yr. --- 128 - 148 --- 24 - 45
27 - 54     --- 133 - 156    11 yr. --- 133 - 155 --- 27 - 52
30 - 61    --- 140 - 163   12 yr. --- 138 - 162 --- 30 - 58
34 - 67    --- 145 - 168   13 yr. --- 143 - 169 --- 33 - 65
38 - 73    --- 149 - 171   14 yr. --- 49 - 177 --- 38 - 72
41 - 78    --- 150 - 173   15 yr. --- 155 - 182 --- 43 - 79

2. WEIGHT ACCORDING TO HEIGHT

Weight of child varies according to height. At any age height of children differ from each other & so the weight. Weight according to Height is a better growth indicator then weight according to age :-

Height(cm) Weight(kg)    Height(cm) Weight(kg)

90 --------- 13 (11 - 15)      120 --------- 22 (19 - 26)
95 --------- 14 (12 - 17)      125 --------- 24 (21 - 29)
100 --------- 15 (13 - 18)      130 --------- 26 (23 - 33)
105 --------- 17 (14 - 20)      135 --------- 30 (25 - 38)
110 --------- 18 (16 - 22)      140 --------- 33 (28 - 42)
115 --------- 20 (17 - 24)      145 --------- 37 (30 - 48)

3. GROWTH PATTERN

(WEIGHT & HEIGHT GAIN PER YEAR) :
Recording the weight & height serially is the best indicator of health of the child.

WEIGHT GAIN :
BETWEEN BIRTH & 3 mo.------ 30 - 40 gm/day.
3 MONTHS TO 1 YEAR       ------ 10 - 20 gm/day.
AFTER 2YR                ------ 2 kgm/year.
Normally, Weight Doubles the birth weight at 5 months, Trebles at 1 yr. & Seven times at 7 year.

HEIGHT GAIN :
Height gain is 6 cm per year.(Between 2-12 yr.)

Record weight & height serially every monthly during Ist year then every 6 monthly.

DWARFISM
Height is strongly related to
Parental height. Children of Short height parents may be of small height, which is normal. Short height is abnormal and labeled as dwarf only when :-

(i) Ht. gain per year is less than 4 cm.

(ii) Ht. is very small, according to the following chart :-

GIRLS (cm)   Age (yr)     Boys (cm)
    72 -----      2 yr. -----      72
    80 -----      3 yr. -----      80
    87 -----      4 yr. -----      88
    94 -----      5 yr. -----      95
   100 -----     6 yr. -----     101
   104 -----     7 yr. -----     105
   109 -----     8 yr. -----     110
   116 -----     9 yr. -----     116
   121 -----    10 yr. -----    121
   126 -----    11 yr. -----    126
   130 -----    12 yr. -----    130
   135 -----    13 yr. -----    135
   139 -----    14 yr. -----    140