Baby & Child Growth Monitor 1.0
Reference Guide

This template is based on official growth chart data published in 2000 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"), National Center for Health Statistics (www.cdc.gov). Please note that it is not a substitute for having a physician monitor your child's growth during regularly scheduled examinations. Visit www.babygrowthmonitor.com or www.childgrowthmonitor.com for additional information and updates. If you like this free version, please order version 2.0 which can record and chart up to 240 measurement dates from birth to 20 years. 

1. License Agreement  This template is provided subject to the terms of our End-User License Agreement ("License.txt"), which is included in the archive file.

2. Installation
The template is distributed as a compressed .zip archive. You will need an unzipping program such as WinZip to uncompress the file. Using Windows Explorer, copy the file from the original disk to a temporary folder on your hard drive. In the temporary folder, double-click on babygrow.zip. WinZip will open. Click on the Extract button and choose a temporary destination folder for the extracted files. Click the Extract button. The files in the archive will then be extracted to the destination folder. Copy the template to the same folder on your hard drive as your Microsoft Excel templates.  Excel templates are usually at "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\" or C:\os\Profiles\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates (where "os" is the operating system folder).

The extracted files are:
- Baby & Child Growth Monitor 1.0.xlt -- the template
- Baby & Child Growth Monitor Web Site -- a link to our site
- File_id.diz -- a brief description of the template
- License.txt -- the software license agreement
- Readme.txt -- a text version of the reference guide
- Order.txt -- a form to order version 2.0
- Survey.txt -- a customer survey

3. Getting Started
To use the template, start Microsoft Excel. On the File menu, click New. Select "Baby & Child Growth Monitor 1.0.xlt" and click OK. The template will open as a new workbook. Before you start entering data, save the new workbook. On the File menu, click Save and select the location where you want to store the new workbook. Enter a suitable File Name. You may want to name it after your child, e.g. Jesse's Growth Charts.  Click Save and Excel will save the workbook in the location you specified with an ".xls" extension. This will be the workbook you use to enter measurements and view growth charts. The original template, with the ".xlt" extension, will not be modified and will be available to create new workbooks for other children.

4. Entering Measurements
With the new workbook open, enter measurements in the white areas on the Home worksheet. (The name of the worksheet appears in the tab at the bottom left of the screen.) At the top of the screen, enter the child's name and date of birth, and click the option button to indicate the child's sex. Indicate whether you are using US or Metric measurements by clicking the appropriate option buttons for the Weight, Height and Head Circumference columns. You can use a mix of measuring units; for example, some pediatricians measure an infant's weight in pounds, length in inches and head circumference in centimeters. Starting in Row 8, enter the date measured, height (referred to as "length" for infants), weight and head circumference. The workbook will automatically indicate the child's age in months and calculate the child's percentiles in the columns on the right. Four percentile columns are for infants ages 0-36 months, and four are for children ages 2-20 years.

5. Age 
The template is designed to record no more than one set of measurements per month of age. While percentile curves appear continuous on the charts, official CDC data actually provides discrete percentiles for birth and for each month at the half month point thereafter. Thus, age is plotted at the half month point for the entire month. The only exception is birth, which is plotted at exactly 0.0 months. For example, 24.5 months on the charts represents 24.0-24.99 months or 24.0 months up to, but not including, 25.0 months of age. So if the child's exact age at a checkup is 24.3 months, measurements for that checkup will be plotted at 24.5 months on the charts. If the child were to have another checkup at 24.8 months, measurements for that checkup would also be plotted at 24.5 months. Because both checkups fall within the same month of age, age-dependent percentiles from the second checkup will override percentiles from the first checkup, causing percentiles from the first checkup to become blank. This is only likely to occur in the first month or two after birth, when frequent checkups may cause two checkups to occur in the same month of age.

6. Percentiles
Pediatric growth charts are used by pediatricians, nurses, and parents to track the physical growth of infants, children, and adolescents. Growth charts consist of a series of curves called "percentiles" that illustrate the distribution of children across the country according to selected body measurements. The CDC has developed growth charts based on data obtained by measuring and weighing thousands of children. Using this data, the CDC established a national average for weight and height for each age and sex which, when plotted, forms a curved line. This average is the 50th percentile curve, which means that in a sample of 1,000 boys or girls, 500 would be above the curve and 500 would be below. Other curves represent the 3rd, 5th, 10th, 25th, 75th, 90th, 95th and 97th percentiles. For example, in a sample of 1,000 children, a child whose height fell on the 25th percentile would be taller than 250 and shorter than 750 children of the same age and sex.

7. Body Mass Index (BMI)
Body mass index, or BMI, is used to determine whether a person's weight is appropriate for their height. BMI is commonly used to determine whether adults are overweight or obese. It is also the recommended measure to determine whether children are overweight. For children, experts disagree on what constitutes obesity. Some believe that a child with a BMI above the 85th percentile for age and sex is obese, while others use the 95th percentile. Childhood obesity has been linked to later development of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and arthritis. In one research study, each sugared soft drink that children consumed each day increased their BMI by 0.18 points. This research suggests that if children increase their daily soft drink intake, each extra soda makes them 60 percent more likely to become obese.
According to the CDC, the extremes in BMI-for-age that raise concern in children 2 to 20 years of age are:

 Underweight:  BMI-for-age <5th percentile
 At risk of overweight:  BMI-for-age >85th percentile
 Overweight:  BMI-for-age >95th percentile

The formula for BMI is: BMI = [Weight in pounds ÷ Height in inches ÷ Height in inches] x 703, or BMI = [Weight in kilograms ÷ Height in cm ÷ Height in cm] x 10,000.

8. Working with Charts
To view a chart, click on the Chart button in the desired percentile column and the chart for that column will appear. The chart buttons automatically link to charts having the units (pounds and inches or kilograms and centimeters) you specified using the option buttons on the home page. Use the navigation buttons at the top of each chart to view the other charts or return to the Home page. The navigation buttons are linked to charts for the child's sex. Do not use the tabs at the bottom of the screen for navigation as these will show charts for both sexes. You can use the mouse to move and resize chart items, including the chart area, the plot area and the legend. The charts are formatted for optimal viewing on a standard monitor, but you may want to make a chart taller if the percentile lines appear too close together. Click the chart item you want to move or resize. To resize an item, point to a sizing handle. When the pointer changes to a double-headed arrow, drag the sizing handle until the item is the size you want. Excel automatically sizes titles to accommodate their text. You can move titles with the mouse but you cannot resize them. To move an item, point to the item, and then drag it to another location.  
Important:  the US versions of the Weight-for-Length and Weight-for-Height charts do not use whole inches for the x-axis labels; this is done to match the original CDC data which is plotted in centimeters.

9. Printing Charts
To print a chart: while viewing the chart, go to File menu, select Print and click the OK button. To print the chart without showing navigation buttons at the top, click on the yellow area of the chart so that sizing handle+B40s appear; then go to the File menu, select Print and click the OK button.

10. Emailing Charts
Individual charts can be easily emailed. To email a chart, go to that chart and click on the File menu. Move the mouse pointer down to Send To. A sub-menu will then appear. Click on Mail Recipient. Fill in the To and Subject fields for the e-mail and click on Send this Sheet which appears in the top left of your screen. An individual chart is approximately 150 kilobytes in size, about the same as a good-quality photograph. If you click on Mail Recipient (as Attachment) in the sub-menu, it will send the whole workbook, which is approximately 3 megabytes and may take a long time to send and download.

11. Macro Warnings
If asked at startup, always select Enable Macros. If you disable macros, none of the buttons will work. Each time you start the template or a workbook based on the template, a warning may pop up stating "Macros may contain viruses...." Excel issues this warning for all workbooks that contain macros, unless the security level is set to Low.  If you don't mind the warning, leave the security level at Medium or High, and click Enable Macros or simply type the letter "e" every time you open the template or a workbook based on the template.  If you want to prevent the warning in the future, click on the Tools menu, point to Macro, click Security and set the security level to Low. It is advisable to use virus detection software to make sure that all of the workbooks you open are safe from viruses.

TROUBLESHOOTING

1. I can't find the template (it's not listed in the New dialog box)
Microsoft Excel will only list a template in the New dialog box if you save the template file in one of the following locations:
A) The Templates folder or a subfolder in the Templates folder, which is usually C:\os\Profiles\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates where os is the operating system folder (e.g. Windows).
B) The XLStart folder, which is usually C:\os\Profiles\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLStart where os is the operating system folder (e.g. Windows).
C) The location you specified in the Alternate startup file location box on the General tab in the Options dialog box (Tools menu).

2. The chart buttons do not work
The chart buttons will not work if Excel's security level is set to Medium or High and you selected "Disable Macros" at startup. Close the workbook and then reopen it and select the "Enable Macros" button when the macro warning appears.

3. Some of the percentile numbers are disappearing
The template is designed to chart no more than one set of measurements per month of age. As a result, Baby & Child Growth Monitor 1.0 is not suitable if the child's growth must be charted more than once per month. If two checkups fall within the same month of age, age-related percentiles from the second checkup will override percentiles from the first checkup, causing percentiles from the first checkup to become blank. Please see the discussion of Age, above. Similarly, the template will chart and give percentiles for only one height per weight. Two consecutive weights at the same height will cause the second "Weight for Height" percentile to override the first, making the first one blank.

Runwell, Inc.
P.O. Box 252
Tenafly, NJ 07670

info@babygrowthmonitor.com or info@childgrowthmonitor.com

Copyright (c) 2001 Runwell, Inc.  All rights reserved.
[Reference Guide last revised: March 22, 2001]
