Children’s height and weight should be measured at least once a year (preferably every six months), and carefully recorded and kept. Because these numbers record the footprints of children’s growth and reflect the growth and health status at different ages, they are more valuable than the results of general laboratory tests. Therefore, caring and loving parents should give their children regular physical examinations, record the measurements at different times, and trace them on a simple growth curve. Connecting the points traced several times is the growth curve of the child. If the child’s curve follows a consistent line, it is healthy. Conversely, if the curve suddenly moves from one grade to a lower grade, watch for adverse factors interfering with the child’s growth.
In fact, in clinical practice, physicians often use growth curve charts to record the growth trajectory of small children, which serve the following purposes: 1. By drawing growth curves, the importance and awareness of monitoring children’s growth can be increased. By collecting as much information as possible about the children’s growth and evaluating their growth, you can get a very good picture of whether the children’s growth is normal or not.
2. By drawing growth curves and referring to the reference values of growth parameters of the normal population, it is possible to understand whether the child’s growth is deviating from the normal growth trajectory. By comparing the growth curves, it can be found that the growth trajectory deviates from the normal level, so it is necessary to come to the clinic for examination to clarify the cause of the growth slowdown.
3. It is used to monitor the efficacy of the child when undergoing treatment and to assess the catch-up growth.