Measuring Growth

The commonest method of measuring a baby's growth is by weighing him. Later, when he can stand, his height will be measured too but by that stage (around 13 to 18 months) he will not be weighed and checked as regularly as he was in the first few months of life. In these first few months weighing can loom very large in the concern of parents, and health professionals too, because it is the simplest indicator of growth and whether your baby is getting enough to eat. This is particularly true of breastfed babies. A better indicator of healthy growth than weight is measurement of length. With babies this has to be done while the baby is lying down and can be quite difficult to do because babies cannot be straightened out very easily! You can ask your health visitor or doctor to measure your baby's length for you or you can try it yourself with someone to help you when the baby is wakeful and relaxed. Length is a better indicator of whether a baby's frame is growing properly than his weight because weight can sometimes mean fat, and it is possible for a baby to be fat and still not growing properly in other respects. In general, though, you will find that regular weighing along with signs of well-being in your baby such as firm skin, alert behaviour and eagerness to feed, give you an indication he is growing.

How Your Doctor Measures Your Baby's Growth

When you take your baby to the clinic to be weighed and checked you may hear your health visitor or doctor talk about centiles. They will note your baby's weight (and perhaps length) and check it against what is called a `centile growth curve' which is based on the average of large numbers of babies. This gives an indication how your particular baby ought to be growing. A child on the 2nd centile means that if 100 children of the same age are measured, then 98 will be larger and 2 will be smaller. Being below the 2nd centile (or conversely above the 98th) is not necessarily abnormal provided the rate of growth is normal, i.e. the child follows along its own particular centile course. These centile measures are used to pick out the few babies (about 2 per cent at each end of the size range) who might need special attention. Many of the children in the big category and the small category will turn out to be normal. Your baby, when he is weighed and measured, will be placed on one of these centile curves according to how big he is. If, for example, two babies are both perfectly normal - that is, within the middle 80 per cent of all babies - but of different sizes, they will be on different growth curves. The main thing about the bigger baby A is that he should grow along the curve appropriate for him, and the same thing applies to the smaller baby B. If baby's weight and growth curve started to drop down towards baby B's and stayed there, it would be cause for concern that he was not getting enough to eat. Similarly, if baby B's weight gain suddenly shot up on to the level of baby A's and stayed there, whilst his height remained on its original growth curve, there might be concern that he was getting too much to eat. These curves can be used to measure how well your child is growing through his childhood and will continue to be used to check for the small minoriry at each end of the size range who may need special dietary help - either more to eat and better care, or less to eat because they are gaining too much weight.

Individual Variafions in Growth

It is important for you not to spend too much time worrying about and checking your baby's weight and size. Relaxed, happy parents help children to grow best! In the first few months of your baby's life Auctuation in growth rates may be quite marked - some weeks he will gain about 225 grams (8 oz), other weeks less or perhaps none at all. This is particularly true of breastfed babies who control their own intake of milk in all kinds of subtle ways. The weekly weight gains of normal babies during their first three months are steadily upward but they are not always smooth. Other things may cause a fluctuation in weight gain - for example, your baby may have a cold one week and not be feeling well, or he may suddenly have a growth spurt, demand feeding every two to three hours and put on an impressive amount of weight in a short time. You will soon develop the practised eye of an experienced father or mother, and you will know from the way he continually grows out of his clothes, from the changes in his face and body, from his skin tone, his eyes and his behaviour, that he is growing as he should be. There will be no need for constant references to scales and tape measure, although it can be fun, once your child can stand and understand, to measure him against the door from time to time, or against a special wall chart. These are often given away free in magazines, and more elaborate versions are sold in baby-care shops.