Catch-up growth means giving of enough nutrients, food, love, and care to children. Catch-up ways should be given as soon as a decline in weight or height is observed.

To catch up on growth, pediatricians would normally evaluate the child’s food intake using a 24-hour food recall technique. This includes the right amount and quality of food.  If food is not enough, increase the child’s food intake and give supplementary multi-vitamins as needed.

Second, check for possible onset of illness. Most common afflictions in children include urinary tract infection, upper respiratory tract infection, and other lung infections. Loss of appetite may also be caused by stomachache and diarrhea.

If in your initial evaluation, the feeding is proper and appropriate, and the child does not have any illness, the delay in growth may be caused by emotional distress. The child may be needing extra care and attention of the parents.

Vitamins being advertised to increase height of children may not work. Use vitamins or growth medicine should be done after proper assessment by a doctor and necessary interventions and after ruling out presence of any illness