Assessment of growth and nutrition

Growth is a dynamic process that is characterized by physiological changes in an individual from infancy into adulthood. Growth should be monitored sequentially and is an important tool in the early detection of chronic disease in children. Growth occurs in three phases: infancy, childhood and puberty (adolescence). The adequacy of nutritional status can be assessed by anthropometric measurements that include height, weight and body composition as well as laboratory evaluations. Individual patients can then be compared to normative or expected values. Impaired growth and nutritional status can be seen in a variety of gastrointestinal disorders and are described in this chapter.