HNFE 2014 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, Low Birth Weight, Growth Chart

• School: Virginia Tech
• Department: Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise
• Course: HNFE 2014
• Professor: Grieco

Document Summary

Fastest period of growth after birth is the period between 0 to 6 months. On average, infant"s birth weight doubles by 6 months and it triples by 1 year. Due to this rapid rate of growth, inadequate nutrition can have long-term consequences! In general, in the healthy newborn, weight gain is the number one tool used to assess growth. But height/length and head circumference are used too! Growth charts are best for assessing long-term growth. Growth patterns and trends (from infancy through childhood) are very important. First parameter to fall on growth charts due to insufficient nutrition is weight. Second parameter to fall on growth charts is height. Body does everything possible to preserve brain development because once that is compromised, catch up growth is not possible. With infants who have health concerns and are hospitalized, in the acute care setting, the practitioner is not going to be able to assess trends in the growth curve.