A newborn baby needs constant and undivided attention from parents. He or she needs a healthy dose of love and affection as well.
Growth is an essential feature of a child’s life that distinguishes him or her from an adult. Medically, growth is a net increase in size or mass of body tissues and is due to multiplication of cells.
Growth of every child is unique and is a continuous and orderly process and is measured using ‘growth charts’.
Periods of Growth
Newborn – Birth to 28 days (Baby) Infant – 2nd Month to 1 Year Toddler – 1 Year to 3 Years Pre-school – 3 to 6 Years School Age – 6 to 14 Years Adolescence: Boys - 12 to 18 years Girls - 10 to 16 years
Development is the maturity of child’s body functions and acquisition of variety of skills for optimal functioning of the child.
Milestone is the set of functional skills or age-specific tasks that most children do a certain age range. Children grow and develop rapidly in their first five years across 3 main areas of development. These areas are, namely:-
Physical development (Motor development) is control of child over his body. It includes child’s physical growth and strengthening of his/her bones, muscles, bodily organs and ability to move and touch his/her surroundings. A summary of most important physical developmental milestones are given below:
Key Developmental Milestones: Gross Motor (Physical)| Age (In months) | Milestones Age (In months) Milestone |
| At birth | Rooting, sucking the breast |
| 3 months | Neck holding |
| 5 months | Sitting with support |
| 8 months | Sitting without support |
| 9 months | Standing with support | 10 months | Walking with support |
| 11 months | Crawling (creeping) | 12 months | Standing without support |
| 13 months | Walking without support | 18 months | Asks meaning of words | 24 months | Walking upstairs | 36 months | Riding Tricycle |
Most children develop skills and abilities in roughly the same order, but the time-frames involved aren’t exact. They vary from child to child, just as hair color and eye color do.
What Parents Can Do Parents can do a few things to help ensure that your child grows and develops normally. Critical points to remember for health and wellness are:
Proper and Adequate rest: Normally, children need an average of 10 to 12 hours of sleep every night. Sleep is very essential as it gives their body much-needed rest to grow and mature well. Sleeping trends in children vary by age and individual.
Optimal Nutrition: It is very important to provide adequate and balanced diet full of essential vitamins and minerals and proteins. This enables the children achieve optimum growth and be physically fit and mentally alert.
Daily Regular Exercise: Because obesity is a problem for many kids, parents should ensure that their kids exercise regularly. Cycling, outdoor sports, swimming or any enjoyable activity that will motivate kids to get moving will promote good health and well-being and help them maintain proper weight.
Developmental delay is estimated to be present in approx. 10% of children. A developmental delay should be suspected by the parents, if a child is not able to perform the given tasks assigned to him/ her by the indicated ages.
Developmental Delay should be suspected in a child if the child is not able to perform the following tasks: (i) pull-up to sit by the 4th month of age (ii) roll-over on a surface by 5 months (iii) sit without support by 7 - 8 months (iv) stand holding on by 9 - 10 months (v) walk by 15 months () (vi) climb up or down the stairs by 2 years (vii) jump with both feet by 2 ½ years (viii) stand momentarily on one foot by age of 3 years (ix) hop by 4 years and then walk in a straight line back and forth or balance on one foot for 5 - 10 seconds by 5 years.
Fine Motor and Adaptive Development: These include co-ordination of eyes, hand-eye co-ordination, hand-mouth co-ordination and skills for manipulation with hands. So Fine motor development, essentially indicate the development of hand-eye co-ordination in growing children. Note that (i) Grasp reflex () should not persist beyond 3 ½ months (ii) baby should be able to hold a rattle by 4 – 5 months (iii) hold an object in each hand by 7 months (iv) Absence of Pincer grasp by 10 – 11 months indicates adverse outcome (v) similarly, inability to put in or take out an object from a cup by 15 months or (vi) inability to remove socks by self by 20 months should be arouse suspicion of developmental delay (vii) child should be able to build a tower of 5 blocks and (viii) scribble by age of 2 years.
Inability of the child to (ix) turn single page of a book by 2 ½ years (x) stack 8 blocks (xi) draw a straight line by age of 3 years (xii) copy a circle or stack blocks by the age of 4 years (xiii) copy a square by 4 ½ years (xiv) build staircase from blocks or copy a cross are other indicators of developmental delays.Thus, it is possible for parents to recognize severe developmental disorders early in infancy. Diagnosis is based on proper medical history, growth chart and evidence of intermittent improvement in growth performance.