okay when you arrive today Jonanna took
Claire out
to measure her height and weight. At this
clinic and at all
New South Wales health services we
measure the growth of children routinely.
We do this because it's important to see
how children are growing over time. This
helps us identify issues early. Yeah, I
can't remember the last time we measured
her height and weight I mean they used to
do it all the time when she was a baby. I
know that's very common and one of the
reasons I thought it would be a good
idea to check Claire's growth today. We've
now got her height and weight and we
have a special chart that we use to
track children's growth over time. Claire
is just inside the yellow section of the
chart. If you look down here that shows
that she's just above a healthy weight.
Oh that's surprising because she looks
normal to me. She looks like all the
other kids at school. It's very difficult
to tell a child's growth status by looking
at them. I can't tell by looking at
children. That's why it's really
important we check Claire's growth every
three months or so to check how she's
growing. I thought she was just here for
her teeth. Why are you showing me this chart?
Well, it's really important to look at
overall health
along with dental health because oral
health is related very closely to
overall health so we're looking at
Claire's teeth but we're also looking at
her general health and this helps us to
keep track of that. Oh okay. Yeah so would
you like to have a little look at this
chart? Oh yeah. If you'd like to turn the
chart over we have eight different ideas
and tips that will help you establish
healthy behaviors for your family. Oh yeah
we do all of
these, Oh but not the tap water. She
doesn't like the taste of the tap water
so I give it juice instead. I'll make
sure she only has soft drink on special
occasions because I know that's bad for
their teeth. That's really good that
you've identified that soft drink with
lots of sugar in it is not healthy for
your teeth or for general health. But it
is important to know also that juice is
not a really healthy choice because a
small bottle of juice can have as much
as ten and a half teaspoons of sugar in
it. Oh, no I wasn't aware that it was that
bad. I thought it was good for them
because it came from fruit. Yeah it's it's
very confusing because some of these
foods are presented as health foods, but
it's always a good idea to choose water
first. Small changes such as choosing
water rather than fruit juice can make a
big difference to Claire's teeth and how
she's growing. Water has fluoride in it
and it's really good for your general
health and it's a great habit to
encourage for your whole family.
That's gonna be hard she really doesn't
like the taste of the tap water at the moment. Yeah it
can be difficult. Can you think of
somehow you might be able to encourage
water for the whole family?
I suppose I could get coloured water
bottles. That might work, like reusable
ones, kids ones yeah. Yeah do you think
the whole family would maybe go along
with that idea? Oh yeah we can, yeah it could be hard but
we can try that yeah. Okay I'm going to check
Claire's teeth now but while I'm having
a look you could have a little look at
this brochure. Have you heard of Go4Fun?
Oh, no I haven't. It's a really great program and it's all
about encouraging healthy habits and all
of those ones that you can see in this
chart. It's designed to help families
with tips to be more healthy like drink
more water. You and Claire can attend
together. Have a little look while I have
a look at Claire's teeth. Great I'll
have a read.