The Rizal Provincial Health Office in coordination with the Center for Health Development CALABARZON and National Nutrition Council Regional Office IV, conducted a training on the World Health Organization-Child Growth Standards for Public Health Nurses, Rural Health Midwives and Municipal Nutrition Action Officers, last November 16-18, 2011 at Villa Cristina Resort, Antipolo City.

There were 34 representatives from 13 municipalities of Rizal and Antipolo City were present during the training. The short opening program, the introduction and overview of the Child Growth Standards (CGS) were facilitated by the Provincial Health Office (PHO) staff.

Ms. Jennifer M. Tañag, Nutritionist-Dietitian of the Center for Health Development (CHD) CALABARZON presented the modules on the Introduction of the Child Growth Standards and Measuring a Child's Growth. It basically contained the guide to the course activities, as well as the principles of determining a child's age; recognizing clinical signs of certain serious problems of undernutrition; weighing a child; and measuring length/height.

Ms. Belinda Cacayan-Beltran, Nutrition Officer II of the National Nutrition Council RO IV facilitated the discussions on Interpreting Growth Indicators. During the sessions, the participants were tasked to plot points on different growth indicators such as: length/height-for-age, weight-for-age, weight-for-length/height and BMI-for-age. The participants also interpreted the plotted points for growth indicators and identify normal growth and growth problems, and the trends on growth charts.

The topics on Counseling on Growth and Feeding were lectured by Dr. Raquel Aparejo, DOH Representative for Rizal Province with the assistance of Ms. Belinda Cacayan-Beltran. The participants were taught on counseling techniques to be able to inform a mother or other caregiver about the results of a child's growth assessment; give appropriate feeding recommendations for a child's age; interview a mother to investigate causes of undernutrition and overweight and give advice related to its specific causes.

A re-entry action plan was done after a completing all the modules to aid the participants will on the adoption the new WHO-CGS to their municipality.