Is Your Child Truly As Healthy As He/She Should Be?
How do you measure health? How do you know how healthy you are? When it comes to children, parents often confuse being chubby as healthy. But that’s not the case. Parents need to understand the importance of age appropriate growth.
As a parent, it is very important that the myths surrounding your kids’ health are debunked, and you get more aware to make better-informed decisions about your child.
Here are some factors that are important in determining whether your child is healthy and growing normally:
Height And Weight Percentiles
Experts suggest that you should measure your child’s height and weight at least once a year through well maintained, quality equipment. Standard height and weight charts have seven percentile lines - 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 97th percentiles. A child who is below 3rd or above 97th percentile is considered out of normal range.1 So, if your child falls in 75th percentile, then out of 100 children of the same age-group, he/she is bigger than 75 children and smaller than 25 children. What you need to understand is that the growth point for any one year itself is not as important as the percentile line that various points trace. A healthy growth follows the suggested percentile line closely.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Whereas height and weight percentiles compares the child’s growth with other children, BMI tells how the child’s weight compares with his/her weight. Irrespective of whether your child is taller, shorter, heavier, lighter – he/she won’t be considered healthy if he/she doesn’t have a normal BMI.
In 2015, the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) found that children who had:2
• BMI 23, were at the risk of being overweight
• BMI 27, were at the risk of obesity
• BMI is below 15, were underweight
You can track your child’s BMI with the help of calculators like Horlicks Growth+ calculator. It gives you the range of height-weight proportion which your child falls in, based on age, gender, height and weight.
Muscle And Bone Growth
The development and growth of muscles and bones form a major part of your child’s growth. The increase in height and weight which your child will undergo is aided by the increase in muscle mass and bone length. Growth plates – an area of tissue at both ends of the long bones - determine the length and shape of your child’s bones. They increase in width during the growing years, thereby providing the bones with the strength and support to grow in length.3 Healthy bone density during childhood and adolescence sets the stage for lifelong skeletal health.4
Growth issues can take a toll on children. Lack of growth may affect confidence of the child. Thus, it becomes imperative for parents to do their best to provide children with all the nutrients important for growth. Horlicks Growth+ can be a good way to aid a child’s growth. It has nearly two times more high-quality protein$ known to contribute to growth in muscle mass. Further , it provides Growth Promoters@ like protein, Potassium, Phosphorus, Zinc and Sodium which are known to support healthy growth. Horlicks Growth+ as a part of daily diet can help in 3 times more growth in 90 days.*