Monitoring Child Growth with Growth Journey™ App by Novo Nordisk

How frequent do you measure your child growth? I'm sure most parents have at least a growth chart in their home, but do you realize sometime we didn't even bother to ask our kids to measure on their weight and height when they start growing up? Mostly, measurement was taken only when our children went to see pediatrician when they are not feeling well. Growth monitoring is extremely important as growth is a key indicator of a child’s health and development. If we practice regular measuring of our child height and weight accordance with their age and sex, We can detect early changes in a child's growth.

However, how can parents be certain that their children are developing at the expected pace? How will they know when something is out of the ordinary and when to consult a paediatrician?

L-R: Puan Alena Hashim, Special Guest Parent; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin, Consultant Paediatrician and Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist, University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC); Mr. Richard Abela, Vice President & General Manager, Novo Nordisk Pharma Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei; Yang Berhormat Dr. Lee Boon Chye, Deputy Minister of Health Malaysia; Dr. Azriyanti Anuar Zaini, Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist, Pusat Perubatan University Malaysia and Ms. Sebnem Avsar Tuna, Corporate Vice President, Novo Nordisk Pharma Operations (BAGOS).

Taking the guesswork out of predicting a child’s growth, Novo Nordisk Pharma (M) Sdn. Bhd. (Novo Nordisk) has today launched the Growth Journey™ app, an innovative growth tracking digital solution that places parents at the heart of their children’s physical development. Using augmented reality technology, the Growth Journey™ app not only enables parents to easily and continuously track children’s growth patterns from the comfort of their homes; it also helps parents to detect any irregularities at an earlier stage. The app records and stores the data collected, which parents can then share with their paediatrician for further analysis if needed.

This innovative digital tool is aligned with Novo Nordisk’s community service initiatives and their children’s growth awareness campaign themed, ‘It’s More Than Height – Its Health!’. Initiated a year ago, the public awareness campaign strives to highlight the need for parents to monitor the growth patterns in their child’s early years. It drives greater understanding on growth disorders in children and the potential impact on their health.

Today’s launch of the Growth Journey™ app was officiated by Yang Berhormat Dr. Lee Boon Chye, Deputy Minister of Health Malaysia. He was joined by Associate Professor Dr. Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin, Consultant Paediatrician and Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist, University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and Mr. Richard Abela, Vice President & General Manager, Novo Nordisk Pharma Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.

Interactive Session on Growth Journey with panellists
L-R: Ms Joanne Ng, Moderator; Puan Alena Hashim, Special Guest Parent; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin, Consultant Paediatrician and Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist, University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Dr. Shweta Uppal, Head of Clinical, Medical, Regulatory, Quality, Novo Nordisk Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei and Ms. Erin Ooi, Biopharm Business Unit Head, Novo Nordisk Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei.

Speaking at the launch of the Growth Journey™ app, Associate Professor Dr. Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin said, “Many parents are unaware of the importance of tracking their child’s growth. Aside from nutrition, poor growth could also be linked to serious health problems which can be treated if addressed early. Having an app such as the Growth Journey™ will offer parents an easy, convenient way to track their child’s growth consistently and monitor if their child is growing healthily. This is especially significant as 80% of a child’s growth trajectory occurs before puberty.”

Poor growth in children is a prevalent issue in Malaysia. About 20.7% of children under 5 years-old were classified as being stunted – a significantly higher figure than the overall prevalence of 6.4 % in other upper-middle income countries. Statistics also show the nation’s stunting rate to have progressively worsen over the years to its 1999 level, even as the global level of stunting has fallen steadily in the same time.

Speaking on the implications of stunting, YB Dr. Lee Boon Chye, Deputy Minister of Health Malaysia shared, “Beyond health issues, short stature children may be subjected to teasing or bullying at school, have lower self-esteem and face physical and social challenges. Moreover, with Malaysia recording as high as 22% in stunting among the urban poor, it is vital for parents to be proactive in monitoring the growth of their children.”

“Height is a major indicator of a child’s heath status, and yet many parents struggle to measure and keep track of the growth of their children over time. Realising this unmet need, we are introducing the Growth Journey™ mobile app - a tool that is easy to access, accurate and simple to use that can make tracking and monitoring height a fun activity enjoyed by both parent and child,” added Mr. Richard Abela.

Special Guest Parent, Puan Alena Hashim shares her experience of her 11-year-old daughter Ailyn Sefira who was diagnosed with Growth Hormone Deficiency at age 7, and the importance of monitoring children’s height regularly.

Dr. Shweta Uppal, Head of Clinical, Medical, Regulatory, Quality, Novo Nordisk Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei reaffirms that the Growth Journey™ App is not just simple, but it’s also fun to use and hopes it will encourage parents to measure and track their child’s height regularly.

L-R: Ms. Erin Ooi, Biopharm Business Unit Head, Novo Nordisk Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei explains how the free-for-all Growth Journey™ works and how parents can download the app from Google Play store or Apple App Store.

Parents can easily download the Growth Journey™ app from the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. Once installed, a child’s height can be tracked in three easy steps:

1. Measure: They can measure their children’s height with the built-in automatic height measurement tool by simply taking a picture of them.

There is another option whereby you can measure manually- Put your child weight and height, and parents height.

The growth chart in the Apps

2. Record: The growth book gives parents a visual historical record of all measurements made in the app.

3. Track: Parents can follow their child’s measurement on a growth chart to monitor their development.

The growth chart can be shared and downloaded easily from the App and we can bring it along to our pediatrician on the next doctor visit for discussion together on our child growth.

It’s important for parents to track their child’s growth consistently and monitor if their child is growing healthily. Height indicates the health of the child and it is parents responsibility to always keep track on the children growth and detect any growth issue earlier if we put more awareness on the importance of child growth.

By using Growth Journey™ app, we can have our own record of child growth with more fun elements by taking pictures with our little ones and sweet memories lane moment when looking back the photos together how much they have grow.

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