How Is a Child’s Growth Measured?

First-time parents are often concerned about their baby’s growth and well-being. They might start panicking when they notice other babies transitioning to solid foods, starting to crawl or responding to hand gestures. While it’s true that all children follow a standard pattern of growth, it’s not exactly the same in all cases. Some children take a while to say their first word while others may be more fluent with their speech development. Even though these are indicators of healthy growth, if your baby is taking his/her time, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are unhealthy. Here are a few things to keep in mind when your baby is in their growing age.

Body Weight

It’s a good idea to keep track of your baby’s body weight and make sure it meets healthy standards. However, a common error that parents make is weighing their baby with their clothes and accessories on. You might not realize it but the shoes, sweaters, caps, pacifier and—most of all—a soiled diaper can a lot of weight on your baby. Since your baby already weighs less, these minor discrepancies hold greater value relative to their bodyweight. This is why it’s important to weight your infant after undressing them on an electronic scale so that there are minimum chances of error.

Height

Until your baby is about to stand, you measure their height as the total length from head to toe. Naturally, for that you have to lay them down and hold a measuring tape from the top of their crown to the bottom of their heels. If you want to get the exact numerical value for their length, you might want to bring them to our clinic where we can measure it through more accurate means.

Circumference of the Crown

The size of the head says a lot about a baby’s health and growth. This is why you might have noticed that pediatricians always note the measurement of the baby’s crown. The idea is to measure the area with the largest circumference. But you need to make sure that the measuring tape is placed above the brows and ears and wrapped around the back of their head. It’s important to keep track of their head because it’s correlated with the size of the brain. An abnormally small skull means that the growth of the brain is hampered. You might also want to get your child checked for hydrocephalus—excessive fluid buildup inside the skull. The best way to deal with anomalous situation is to book an appointment with Pediatrician in San Antonio for newborn babies at our Stone Oak clinic in San Antonio and have them take a look! Learn more about children’s medical center San Antonio