Who to approach with your growth concerns and resources to help you

Who can I go to with my concerns about my child’s growth?

Depending on the level of healthcare input and age of your baby/child, you can raise any concerns you have about their health and growth with the following healthcare professionals:

1. Midwives:

Your midwife checks your babies’ growth and measurements at birth and up until 2 weeks of age. They can discuss any concerns you may have about this and support you in seeking further healthcare input as appropriate.

2. Health Visitor:

Your health visitor and/or a healthcare professional within the health visiting team, will continue to check your baby’s health, development and growth from 2 weeks of age up until school age. They may come into your home to carry out these checks, or you may attend a clinic for them to be completed. If you have concerns, they will support you to access the necessary assessments as appropriate.

3. School Nurses:

School nursing teams weigh and measure children as part of the National Child Measurement Programme at school entry (4-5 years) & at the end of primary school (10-11 years). The National Child Measurement Programme is a health initiative in schools that helps keep track of children’s growth. This information helps to understand how children are growing across the country and identify whether children are growing as expected. Whilst the focus of this programme is to measure BMI, it is also an opportunity for any children who have irregular growth to be signposted for further assessment.

4. GP Practices:

GP’s and/or Practice Nurses will measure children and assess their growth at routine appointments, or you can make a specific appointment to raise any concerns you have. As appropriate, they may refer you to a Paediatrician or other Paediatric specialist in a hospital setting for further assessment and/or investigations as needed.

This guide aims to help decide if further assessment is needed for short or tall stature. It will also help you to prepare the information that your GP may ask for.

5. At hospital appointments and on hospital admissions:

A range of healthcare professionals including; Nurses, Nursery Nurses, Health Care Assistants, Family Support Workers and Doctors will weigh and measure babies and children in a hospital setting. If your child is admitted to hospital or attends an outpatient appointment, checks on their growth will be part of the health assessments completed. You can also ask your health professional to add the growth measurements to the child health record (red book) each time. If you have concerns about their growth, you can discuss them with your child’s doctor.

These guidelines produced by British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (BSPED), will help your child’s doctors to identify the most appropriate course of action for any assessments and/or investigations for short stature.

6. Child Growth Foundation

If you are unsure who to speak to about any questions or concerns, you may have about your child’s growth we are here to listen and support you. We can provide information as a basis for discussions with your healthcare professional. Our nurse led Support Line is available to anyone concerned about their child’s growth or if they have a diagnosed growth condition. We are here to listen and support you.

Call us on 020 8995 0257. Our staff work on a part time basis and if we are not able to answer your call please leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively please email us at [email protected] to arrange a time to chat or complete our Support Line contact form.

By contacting the Child Growth Foundation Support Line you are providing consent for us to collect, process and store your data to provide you with the information or services you are contacting us about. Read our Support Line Privacy Statement for full details.

Additional resources

The Child Growth Foundation has produced this Healthcare Organiser to be used by families wishing to keep a personal record of their child’s medical history, current needs, and health services input. Depending on your personal preferences you can share it with healthcare professionals at appointments and/or during hospital admissions.

Our resource Childhood growth: A parent carer guide is packed with information including typical growth in childhood and puberty, monitoring growth and measuring at home, head circumference measurements, concerns if you’re child is smaller or taller than expected, who to approach if you have concerns, and more.

References and further information

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)’s Growth charts – information for parents and carers.

UK-WHO Growth Charts – Fact Sheet 6: Plotting and assessing infants and toddlers up to age 4 years.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)’s guidance: Faltering growth: recognition and management of faltering growth in children.

British Journal of General Practice: Assessment of childhood short stature: a GP guide.

NHS: The National Child Measurement Programme.

British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (BSPED)’s Clinical standards for growth assessment and referral criteria for children with a suspected growth disorder.