Growth charts and their uses Flashcards
(39 cards)
Why do we monitor growth?
- public health reasons
- clinical practice reasons
What are the public health reasons why we monitor growth?
- screen and survey population to see growth trends
e. g. recognise obesity and see what is being done
What are the clinical practice reasons of monitoring growth?
- assess health and nutrition of child
- diagnose disease
- monitor disease
When are babies weighed?
- birth
- first few weeks of life
- first year
- then no routine check unless they want to check at GP or A&E
Where are the weight measurements inputted?
- red book
- usually parents don’t fill this in after the 1st year
How do we monitor growth?
- weight
- height
- head circumference
How is weight measured?
- babies= no clothes of nappy
- older children= vest, pants, no shoes, no dolls/teddies in hands
- only class III clinical electronic scales in metric setting should be use
How is height measured in babies under 2?
- babies under 2= use proper equipment e.g. length board/mat bc accurate
- 2 measureres need to measure
- without nappy or footwear
How is height measured over the age of 2?
- use T piece or stadiometer
- ensure heels, bottom, back and head touching apparatus
- eyes and ears at 90 degrees
- no shoes
- measure on expiration
Why is it hard to measure the height of a baby until the age of 2?
- bc baby cant stant
- hard to keep baby still
- hard to stretch baby out
How do you measure head circumference?
- use narrow plastic of disposable paper tape
- measure where the head is widest (usually on forehead above ears)
Why is measuring the circumference of the head hard?!
- hard to measure
- depends on person measuring
- depend on where tape is placed on head
Why is measuring head circumference important?
- can indicate raised intracranial pressure
- indicate any head problems
What do you do once you have measured the height, weight and head circumference?
- plot on a graph
What is the purpose of growth chart?
- displays data and patterns
Why are there lines already on growth charts?
- they are data from cross sectional studies on children’s growth at all ages
- lines are based on SD from the mean
- each line represents 2 or 2 SDs
- lines evenly spread
What could have been a problem before with growth charts?
- could have been representative of certain ethnic group
(older charts represented a certain group of people) - now shows standard of how a child should grow
What does normal growth of a child depend on?
- ethnicity
- black babies = heavier, more muscle mass
- south Asian babies = smaller
- social class- nutrition
In the UK, what are the 2 charts used?
- 0-4 years use the UK-WHO chart
- 2-18 years chart used in school
How is the 0-4 years UK WHO chart made?
- made looking at baby growth patterns when BREAST FED MILK
- can measure occipital-frontal circumference in the first 2 years of life
Why are breastfed babies used as a variable?
- babies on breast milk grow optimally
What does the UK WHO graph miss out?
- chart shows no data for first 2 weeks of life
- bc baby loses weight
- lose all the excess blood, fluids etc in the first two weeks
- so weighing baby now is no indication of the weight in the future
What does the UK WHO have separate?
- pre-term section for babies who are born pre-term (below 37 weeks)
Explain the 2- 18 year old chart used in schools?
- used in schools
- take into account puberty
- section to measure parental height = to determine child height in future
