Is Your Child Growing Normally??

     

           A parent's frequent question in my Growth clinic is,

                                                       " Doctor, is my child growing up all right?" 

          while this question has numerous answers depending on the child in question, there are certain basic facts every parent must know about growth. 

        Let's discuss the first part of the growth series

    Growth is the miracle of childhood.. 

      How a little bundle of joy at birth transitions and transforms into an adult human is truly a remarkable feat of nature,,,

 Growth is universal

        Every child grows. And hence we tend to take it for granted.... until something goes wrong and the child stops growing well.

       But do you really need to wait before your child comes up with a serious growth problem?

                               The answer is NO...

Can you pick up a problem before it becomes severe?

                                                          

                               The answer is YES..

 Can you monitor the child's growth yourself?

                                The answer is YES. 

What is growth

Growth means increase in height and weight of the child

Why do you need to look at your childs growth carefully
 

       To put it in simple words, growth is the sum total of all the body processes. If growth is alright, it means most of the body processes are going well so you can stop worrying about your kiddo’s health

As a law of nature

A Well Growing Child is a Healthy Child

What does good growth tell us

1.  Nutrition intake is good

2.  All Hormones are fine

3.  Metabolism is co-ordinated

4   Illnesses arent ‘consuming away’ the child's inner body.

5.  Child is in psychosocial well being (happy kids grow better)

        

         A child who is not growing well has a deficiency or a disorder.Height is nature’s early warning sign, a VISUAL ALARM for parents and physicians not increasing in height  could indicate certain invisible problems are going on inside the child’s body

So how can  you know that your child is growing normally?

1.   Is he/she not outgrowing clothes every year?

2. Is the shoe size not increasing every year?

       3.   Is he/she among the 3 shortest children in class?

       4.    Is he/she not growing atleast 5 cm per year

5.    Is he/she also much leaner or chubbier than classmates?

         If the answer to any of these questions is yes, this child needs to be looked at carefully. the growth parameters need to be measured and marked and followed up regularly.

     I must stress here that every child must have his/her own growth chart.It is a paper which has markings of ideal height and weight at all ages. Each visit to a pediatrician must have a recording of height and weight done on the growth chart.

      I shall cover the topic on how to plot a growth chart yourself in the coming days.

   Happy Growing 😊..

Dr Uppal, Saurabh

Childhood Growth & Hormone Specialist







Dr. Uppal is a Pediatric Endocrinologist and Director at ENDOKIDZ Centre for Growth, Diabetes, and Hormones for Children at Jalandhar, Punjab India.

If you have any concerns about your height, Consult your family doctor or your Child's pediatrician and request them to assess the child height and plot the child's height on a GROWTH CHART. If the height is less than what is expected at that age, your doctor may refer the child to a Pediatric Endocrinologist.

                    

Mangoes are Sweeter This Season

This is not an educative or an awareness post. Maybe its more than one....

    Diabetic kids occupy a big chunk of my Pediatric Endocrinology practice .. and my heart and soul. There isn't a day that passes without me playing their pancreas and teaching their parents to play the same role. Challenging as it is, it has its own share of sweet rewards something i ve experienced this mango season.
                          Emotion is a really big part of Childhood diabetic care and one emotion thats so strong in kids I ve realised is the desire to eat a mango.... You wont appreciate it untill u meet a kid who cant eat one. 

But this season has been different. Families who have learnt advanced carbohydrate counting are seeing a joy they missed for years together, the joy of their tiny tots devouring mangoes and still having their blood sugars under control... I meet diabetic kids who love me now for I let them eat mangoes and their parents who often have tears of joy when they tell me this is the first season after years that they have brought mangoes to their house and hence themselves eaten them after years. 

Children with diabetes need not miss out on the sweet delicacies of life.
 All they need to learn is how to balance insulin with food. 
                                                                                                    whatever food it may be.. 



and now everytime I eat a mango myself, the reminiscence of all these kids makes them taste sweeter.......



happy to help :-)

Dr Uppal