Book Description

Written to assist managers of child health programs, this publication explains the features and uses of a simple visual chart for monitoring childhood growth and detecting changes in nutritional and health status. The first part of the book introduces the basic principles and procedures for measuring changes in growth and knowing when these changes signal a deterioration in health. Highly practical information on the design and use of growth charts is presented. In order to ensure that growth charts are understood and properly used by community health workers, the book alerts program managers to specific problems of design, presentation, recording, or interpretation that should be considered when developing or adapting a chart for local use. Illustrations show a prototype chart and modified versions developed to meet special needs in India, Indonesia, Colombia, Thailand, and Brazil. The book also shows how such charts can be used for the education of mothers in appropriate feeding practices and the development of a medical history. The second part of the book offers guidelines for training health workers to use the chart. Information ranges from important points to stress when teaching weighing procedures to examples of cases where growth information might be misinterpreted. (RH)