Which Measure Would Be Best for the Weight of a Baby

Why is measuring height and weight important?

• Measuring height and weight helps to evidence whether a child is growing well.
• If measurements evidence that a child is wasting, thin or swollen, the child may take acute malnutrition and must be referred for nutritional care and treatment.

What yous demand to know

• It is important to be as accurate as possible when taking measurements.
• Clothes and shoes should be removed when measuring weight. Shoes should be removed when measuring height. To reassure the caregiver, effort to mensurate in private (for instance by using a screen).
• Ii people are required to take each measurement (particularly elevation). If the parent or carer is shut past, she or he tin reassure the child.
• Measurements should be read aloud clearly and recorded immediately to avoid error.

How to measure height (length)

• Children less than two years former are measured lying downward (length). Children more than two years old are measured standing up (elevation). Height and length hateful the same thing: how tall the child is.
• If historic period is not known, children shorter than 87 cm are measured lying down. If a child less than two years will non lie down, measure continuing summit and add 0.7 cm to the measurement. If a child older than 2 years cannot stand, measure length lying down and decrease 0.vii cm from the measurement.

Lying down

1. Place the height board apartment on the ground or on a table or demote space.
2. Remove the child'south shoes and gently identify the kid on his or her dorsum along the heart of the board.
3. Hold the sides of the kid's head, cupping the ears, and (with the help of the assistant or carer) position the head touching the lath. The head should be positioned so that the line of sight for the kid is perpendicular to the head board.
4. Place your hands gently on the child's ankles or knees to keep them apartment and straight. While positioning the child's legs, place the sliding lath confronting the soles of the kid's feet, which should be at right angles to the board.
5. The measurer reads aloud the measurement to the nearest 0.1 cm.
6. The measurement should be repeated. A 2nd person records it immediately.

Standing upwardly

1. Remove the child's shoes.
2. Place the child continuing upright confronting the centre of the height board.
3. Firmly printing the kid's ankles and knees confronting the board (helped by the banana or carer), ensuring that his or her head is straight and that he or she is looking directly in front.
4. The kid'due south head, shoulders, buttocks and heels should all touch the board.
5. The sliding office of the board should residue flat against the top of the head.
6. The measurer reads out loud the measurement to the nearest 0.one cm.
7. The measurement should exist repeated. A second person records it immediately.

How to measure weight

• Weight may be measured using a Salter-blazon hanging bound scale (where the kid hangs below the scale) or an electronic calibration that allows a child to exist measured in the parent's or carer'southward artillery.
• Equipment should exist regularly checked (calibrated) against a known weight (for example, five litres of oil), and always set to naught earlier use.
• Infants who are younger than six months usually crave special infant scales, which are available in hospitals or clinics. Alternatively, they can be measured past the Salter when sitting in a sling.

Using hanging Salter scales

In a health facility, the calibration is attached to the ceiling or a stand. In a community, the calibration tin can be hooked to a tree or tripod or suspended from a stick held by ii people.

1. Attach the weighing pants (or a weighing hammock for smaller infants) to the calibration.
2. Check the needle is on zero.
3. Remove the child'due south apparel and shoes.
4. Place the kid in the weighing pants. Make sure the kid is safe by staying shut and placing one arm in front end of and one arm behind the child to continue him or her balanced.
5. Take the reading when the kid is calm and the scale needle has stopped moving. The calibration should exist read at eye level and the value read aloud to the nearest 100 g.
6. Repeat the measurement. A 2d person should record it immediately.

If weighing pants are not available, it is possible to suspend the kid in a slice of the female parent'southward clothing, or in a basin or grass basket. In such cases, make sure the scale is appropriately readjusted to nil.

If (for cultural reasons or considering of the climate) it is not possible to remove clothes, an average weight for dress should be deducted from the measurement.

Using electronic scales

Electronic scales are very precise, whether they are powered by a battery or a solar switch. They are designed to allow the parent or caregiver to hold the child while he or she is weighed.

1. Place the scale on a flat surface in a well-lit area.
2. Make certain that all iv of the calibration'south anxiety are on the footing.
3. Remove the child's article of clothing.
4. Plow the scale on by moving a manus over the solar switch. (An image of an adult indicates the scale is ready to weigh an adult.)
5. The parent or caregiver stands on the scale first, without the child. The weight is shown and stored in the scale'southward memory. The adult remains on the scale.
6. Wave a mitt over the solar switch again. The calibration indicates that it is fix to weigh an adult with a kid. (An image of an adult holding a child is shown.)
7. The kid to be weighed is passed to the adult on the scale, who remains still.
8. The scale shows the kid's weight. Read the measurement aloud; a 2nd person records it immediately.

Measuring height and weight of a child

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Source: https://ifrcgo.org/ecv-toolkit/action/measuring-the-height-and-weight-of-children/

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