Monitoring growth in children
Getting to grips with normal child development can help reassure anxious parents.
8th December 2014
Checking the growth of children, especially when they are younger, is a central responsibility of GPs. Failure to thrive is something that should not be missed.
Immunisation visits and routine baby and child checks, as scheduled in the Personal Health Record (the "blue book"), provide perfect opportunities for GPs to ensure children have appropriate weight, height/length and head circumference growth.
When there are concerns, either "crossing" of growth percentiles, or worse, decreasing growth parameters, then obviously further investigation is warranted.
A thorough