The Importance of Recognizing Stages of Child Growth

Parents should properly monitor the stages of the child's growth at any time. In addition to ensuring that children can grow up healthy and optimal, monitoring the child's growth is also important to detect early signs of growth disturbance so that it can be prevented or treated as soon as possible.

Child growth is a process of change characterized by increasing physical size and body shape. Child growth can be assessed through measurements of height, weight, and head circumference. Whether or not normal measurements or growth rates can be determined through the available measurement standards.

Get to Know Some Stages of Child Growth

The following are some stages of the child's growth that you need to know:

Height

Healthy child height growth will develop gradually each year. The average ideal height increase in children is:

• Infants aged 0-12 months: 25 cm
• Children aged 1-2 years: 13 cm
• Children aged 2-3 years: 9 cm
• Children aged 4 years to puberty: 5 cm every year

But keep in mind that the stages of growth of each child are different. A child's height is greatly influenced by the nutrition he receives in the first 1,000 days of his life and also his health condition.

So, the growth rate of the Little One could have been a little slower or faster than this. As long as your child's height or length is still within the ideal limits of his age, there is nothing to worry about.

Weight

Ideally, a healthy newborn will weigh around 2.6-3.8 kg. As we get older, the weight will continue to increase according to the stages of growth of children. The following is the average weight gain in children that you need to know:

• Infants aged 0-6 months: 140-200 grams every week
• Infants 6-12 months: 85-140 grams every week
• Children aged 1-2 years: 2.5 kg every year
• Children aged 2-5 years: 2 kg every year
• Children aged 5 years to puberty: 2-3 kg every year

Just like height, weight gain in children also depends on nutrition and health conditions. To facilitate the mother, make sure the weight of your child has become 3 times the birth weight when he reached the age of 1 year.

If it is not exactly three times as much, remember, as long as it is still proportional to height or is still within the ideal limits of a child's age, his weight is still normal, really, Bun.

Head circumference

In addition to height and weight, a measure of the child's growth that you need to know is your child's head circumference. This examination is important because the size of the baby's head circumference that is not normal can indicate a disturbance in brain growth. The following is the average head circumference increase in children:

• Infants 0-3 months: 2cm every month
• Infants aged 4-6 months: 1 cm every month
• Infants aged 6-12 months: ½ cm every month
• Children aged 1-2 years: 2 cm in 1 year

How to Optimize Stages of Child Growth

So that children can grow up healthy and optimal, there are several ways you can apply to support their growth, including:

• Make sure your child consumes healthy foods by following balanced nutrition guidelines, starting from the consumption of various sources of protein, good fats, vegetables, and fruits, as well as drinking enough water.
• Make sure your child has a clean diet and lifestyle to avoid infection.
• Avoid the risk of obesity in children by regulating diet and routinely inviting him to exercise early.
• Familiarize your child to meet the ideal sleep time, which is 11-14 hours per day in infants and 10-13 hours per day in children aged 3-5 years.
• Perform routine measurements at the hospital, i.e. every month until the age of 1 year, every 3 months until the age of 3 years, every 6 months until the age of 6 years, and once a year in the following years.

Maintaining the quality of nutrition and hygiene of food and drinks consumed by children is very important to do. Adequate nutrition from food will act as a source of energy and forming components of bones and muscles to grow.

Meanwhile, clean food can prevent children from various kinds of infectious diseases. If it often occurs during infancy, infectious diseases in children can cause growth disorders, even to the point of stunting.

A healthy child will continue to experience ideal growth and development. So, the child's growth can be a benchmark for the child's health condition. This is why every mother needs to always monitor the stages of her child's growth.

If you feel your child is experiencing growth disorders or indeed the results of body measurements are not normal, you are advised to immediately consult a doctor or nutritionist to find out the causes and treatments needed.

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