Flora, you brought your child for a checkup too? "The doctor said that the baby's stomach and intestines may have absorption problems, and asked me to bring the baby back for a retest in a couple of days, so I hope that the baby will be okay. Baby's health is closely related to height, weight and head circumference, but many parents tend to overlook the importance of growth curves. We invited pediatricians to analyze the health index of babies from the growth charts and teach you to decipher the hidden growth codes behind the charts, so that you can grow up with peace of mind!
The health of the baby is closely related to the head circumference. （Growth charts
To determine whether your baby's growth is normal or not, you must first understand the growth charts. There are three types of growth indicators: length/height, weight, and head circumference, and they are categorized into boys' and girls' versions.
The curve is drawn with 5 percentile curves, 97, 85, 50, 15, 3, etc. The 5 lines from top to bottom are red, orange, green, orange and red, the baby's length/height, weight, head circumference, as long as the seat falls in the 3rd to the 97th percentile are within the normal range; the weight more than the 97th percentile of overweight, less than the 3rd percentile of the too light.
When using a growth chart, it is important to determine your baby's age before moving up to length/height, weight, or head circumference, and to remember to look at the "real" age rather than the imaginary age, and not to move up the scale (e.g., moving from 1.5 to 2 years old).
Decreasing two zones at a time, children are afraid of problems
Wu Yilei, Director of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism at Chang Hwa Christian Children's Hospital, said, "The growth curve is a continuous value, and you can't just look at the growth curve of a single point to judge if the child is normal or not in terms of height, weight, and head circumference. Physicians usually do a health checkup at 2 months, 3 months, 4 months to 10 months, 10 months to 1.5 years, 1.5 years to 2 years, 2 years to 3 years, and 3 years to less than 7 years of age, and suggest that parents can record their children's growth on the growth charts so that they can observe their children's health at different stages.
If a child's growth curve stays within a certain range for the first few checkups, and then drops down a range, for example, from the 50th percentile to the 25th percentile, it's usually not due to illness or other external factors, and can be observed again. However, if your child's growth curve drops two zones, from the 50th percentile to the 15th percentile, you need to be alerted, and it's best to seek medical attention as soon as possible.
Generally speaking, 0 to 2 years old will not identify and diagnose whether the child is "overweight" or "not tall enough", 3 years old after the measurement of children and adolescents body mass index (i.e., BMI, algorithms and adults are the same), the BMI value must correspond to the children and adolescents body mass index BMI table; BMI more than the 85th percentile is overweight, more than the 97th percentile is obese. In the 0-2 year age group, unless there is an obvious abnormality (e.g., obesity combined with growth retardation), it is important to discuss the child's condition with a physician.
For the full article, see the November 2018 issue of Babies & Mothers. mababy/knowledge-detail?id=8248