Child Growth Monitoring

Growth monitoring is the regular measurement of a child's height or length, weight and head circumference, plotted on standard growth charts, with pubertal staging in older children. The line a child follows over time says far more than any single measurement.

Steady growth along a centile is one of the best signs of good health. Crossing centiles downwards or upwards, or growing much shorter or taller than the parents' heights predict, prompts a search for a cause. Most short children are healthy and simply take after their family or mature late.

Conditions this service looks after

• Short stature and slow growth
• Poor weight gain in infants (faltering growth)
• Childhood overweight and obesity
• Early puberty, before 8 in girls or 9 in boys
• Delayed puberty, no signs by 13 in girls or 14 in boys
• Unusually large or small head size in infants
• Growth hormone deficiency, hypothyroidism, coeliac disease and Turner syndrome presenting as poor growth

Tests you may be offered

• Accurate measurement: Length on a measuring board under age 2, standing height on a wall-mounted stadiometer after, and calibrated scales.
• Growth charts and growth velocity: WHO charts to age 5 and national references afterwards; at least two measurements 6 months apart give velocity.
• Mid-parental height: Calculates the range the child is expected to reach from the parents' heights.
• Bone age X-ray: A left hand and wrist film showing skeletal maturity and remaining growth potential.
• Blood tests: Blood count, thyroid function, coeliac antibodies, kidney and liver tests, IGF-1 and, in short girls, a karyotype.
• Growth hormone stimulation test: A supervised day test, done by a paediatric endocrinologist only after other causes are excluded.

Treatments available

• Reassurance and follow-up: For familial short stature and constitutional delay, which need no treatment.
• Nutrition support: Feeding assessment and dietitian input for poor weight gain, and family-based lifestyle change for obesity.
• Treating the underlying disease: Gluten-free diet, thyroid hormone or control of a chronic illness restores growth.
• Growth hormone therapy: Daily or weekly injections for years in proven deficiency and a few other approved conditions.
• Puberty treatment: Medicines to pause true early puberty, or a short hormone course to start delayed puberty.

When to ask for a specialist opinion

• Your child has dropped across two major centile lines
• Height is below the lowest centile line or far below what family heights suggest
• A child grows less than about 4 to 5 cm a year between age 4 and puberty
• Signs of puberty appear very early or very late
• Rapid weight gain with slowing height, which suggests a hormonal cause

Travelling to Türkiye for this care

Growth can only be judged over time, so monitoring belongs with your child's regular doctor. A visit can provide a one-off paediatric endocrinology opinion with bone age and blood tests in 2 to 3 days; bring every past measurement you have, ideally the growth chart. A stimulation test adds a day. Growth hormone and puberty treatments need supervision every 3 to 6 months for years and should be managed at home. Be cautious of any offer of growth hormone for a healthy short child.

Send your reports, scans and a short history and a Clinic-Y coordinator replies within 24 hours with suitable teams and written, all-inclusive proposals side by side. Reviewing your case is free.

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