Where There Is No Doctor:Children's growth - And the road to health

A healthy child grows steadily. If he eats enough nutritious food, and has no serious illness, a child gains weight each month.

A child who gains weight more slowly than other children, stops gaining weight, or is losing weight is not healthy. He may not be eating enough or he may have a serious illness, or both.

A good way to check whether a child is healthy and is getting enough nutritious food is to weigh him each month and see if he gains weight normally. If a monthly record of the child's weight is kept on a Child Health Chart, it is easy to see at a glance whether the child is gaining weight normally.

When used well, the charts tell mothers and health workers when a child is not growing normally, so they can take early action. They can make sure the child gets more to eat, and can check for and treat any illness the child may have.

On the next page is a typical Child Health Chart showing the `road to health'. This chart can be cut out and copied. Or larger, ready-made cards can be obtained (in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Arabic) from Teaching Aids at Low Cost (TALC, see p. 431 for address). Similar charts are produced in local languages by the Health Departments in many countries.

It is a good idea for every mother to keep a Child Health Chart for each of her children under 5 years of age. If there is a health center or `under-fives clinic' nearby, she should take her children, with their charts, to be weighed and to have a `check-up' each month. The health worker can help explain the Chart and its use. To protect the Chart, keep it in a plastic envelope.

Homemade Beam Scale

You can make a beam scale of dry wood or bamboo. Place all hooks as shown and hang scale. To make kg. marks on the beam, fill 2 plastic one-liter bottles with water. Place the first bottle where baby would hang. Hang the second bottle, and where beam balances, make the 1 kg. mark, and so on. With a ruler, measure the distance between the marks, and make marks for 200,400, 600, and 800 grams.

Direct Recording Scale

Available from TALC (see Template:See Page)

The growth chart slips in behind the scales so you can mark the child's weight directly onto the chart. It is best to hang this and other scales close to the ground. A baby may be scared of hanging up high.