WHO encourage exclusive breast-feeding for the first 6 months of life. What are the benefits of this?
Child
Mother
Start weaning at 6 months with pureed food and baby rice, then normal diet by 1 year
How much should a baby be fed in the first part of life?
Split between feeds every 2-3 hours then gets longer as time goes on
How much weight loss in the first week of life is normal?
By day 5 normal to lose 10% weight in breast-fed and 5% bottle fed
Should be back to birth weight by day 10
If lose more weight than this or do no regain weight by day 14 need hospital admission and investigations
How do you plot a growth chart?
Male and Female have separate charts. Use UK-WHO from 0-4 and UK1990 from 4 upwards
X-Axis: Age
Y-Axis: Head circumference, Weight, Height
How do we interpret growth charts?
Based on centiles
50% is average
e.g 91% height means child is taller than 91% of people their age
Worrying if child is not maintaining centiles!!!
How do we measure a child to plot their growth chart?
Length Board: before 2 years, do without nappy or footwear
T piece or Stadiometer: eyes and ears at 90 degrees, no foot wear, measure on expiration
How often do we need to weigh babies?
How do we work out percentage weight loss from a growth chart?
How do we work out adult height from centiles?
Take centile at 2-4 years and plot
What BMI centile represents obesity?
Over 91%
If over 98% morbidly obese
If over 85%overweight
Can only do this from age 2 up
What syndromes may need GH treatment by assessing their growth charts?
What are the three phases of growth in childhood and what are they driven by?
If a child is short and obese what do you need to consider?
Endocrine disorder e.g hypothyroidism, GH deficiency
Obese children are usually tall for their age if due to overconsumption
What is the management for obese children?
What is the definition of ‘faltering growth’ or ‘failure to thrive’?
What are some causes of failure to thrive?
What parts of the history do you need to emphasise when looking at a child with failure to thrive?
How do we calculate mid-parental height and interpret this?
(height of mum + height of dad) / 2
Outcomes from the assessment that would suggest inadequate nutrition or a growth disorder are:
What are two important investigations NICE recommends when a child has failure to thrive?
Look for signs of underlying conditions e.g Pyloric Stenosis, Cystic Fibrosis
How is failure to thrive managed?
How can we predict the height of a child as and adult using their parent’s height?
What is the definition of short stature and some reasons for this?
Height below 2nd percentile for their age (2 SD from average)
How can we determine short stature as a constitutional delay?
History and examination and can be supported by an xray of the hand and wrist to assess bone age. Management involves excluding other causes of a short stature and delayed puberty, reassuring parents and the child and monitoring growth over time
Child will grow to normal adult height as puberty will last longer for them, they are short due to delayed bone age
Apart from growth, what are the four domains we can measure development in children?