Table of contents:
- What is the Kartu Menuju Sehat (KMS)?
- How to read KMS?
- Get under the red line
- Located in the yellow area (above the red line)
- It is in light green above the yellow line
- Above dark green
- How important is KMS for the growth of children under five?
Kartu Menuju Sehat (KMS) has been used in Indonesia since the 1970s as a tool to monitor children's growth and development. The age monitored using KMS is 0-5 years and is usually filled in by a doctor or health worker. However, it is important for parents to understand how to read KMS so that they can monitor children's development easily. Here's the explanation.
What is the Kartu Menuju Sehat (KMS)?
Kartu Menuju Sehat (KMS) is a chart record of children's development measured by age, weight and gender.
Quoting from the official website of the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI), there are three kinds of tools to monitor children's growth, using KMS, the Maternal and Child Health book (KIA book), and the PrimaKu application issued by IDAI.
The three of them provide complete information on child immunizations and monitor exclusive breastfeeding for infants aged 0-6 months.
In addition, it includes basic child care tips, such as feeding children and caring for children if they have diarrhea.
Not only for children, KMS, KIA books, and the PrimaKu application also have records for mothers regarding health from pregnancy, childbirth, to the postpartum period.
Parents are encouraged to update the data on the card every month by bringing their toddler to the posyandu or pediatrician.
Monitoring a child's growth through this card can make doctors determine whether a child is growing normally according to their age or not.
The card towards health, consists of 1 sheet (2 pages back and forth) with 5 parts in it.
Boys and girls differentiate how to fill in and read it. KMS boys are blue and girls are pink.
The Menuju Sehat Card (KMS) is available in physical form which is given by the doctor after the birth of the child. But now KMS is also available online on line which can be accessed here.
How to read KMS?
Graph of child development in KMS
After the child's weight is measured and the child's height is measured, the doctor or medical personnel will provide a point according to the month when the child is examined.
The next task of parents is to pay attention to the location of that point. The following is an explanation of the growth chart of children in KMS:
Get under the red line
If the growth chart of the child is below the red line, this is a sign that your little one is experiencing moderate to severe malnutrition.
If the child is in this zone, consult a pediatrician for further tests. Usually the doctor will ask questions about eating habits and change your baby's eating schedule.
To be clearer, parents can consult a metabolic subspecialty pediatrician who focuses on cases of malnutrition, malnutrition, obesity, and cases of metabolic disorders.
Located in the yellow area (above the red line)
If the growth chart of the child in KMS is in the yellow area, this indicates that the child is experiencing mild malnutrition.
no need to panic, parents only need to make an evaluation of feeding the little one. For more details, you can consult a doctor.
It is in light green above the yellow line
When the growth chart is in light green above the yellow line, your little one has enough weight or good nutritional status and is said to be normal.
Even so, the child's weight still needs to be weighed and given food according to the child's nutritional needs so that their development remains appropriate for their age.
Above dark green
The KMS graph above in dark green shows that the child has weight that is more than normal.
If your child experiences this, immediately consult a doctor to get the right health services.
Keep in mind that children who are overweight are prone to various diseases, such as obesity or heart attacks.
In addition, parents also need to see the progress and changes in the position of the points on the chart every month.
Is it going up or down, getting up, or even decreasing because it has a different meaning.
- The graph point is higher than before: the child's weight has increased.
- The graph point is parallel to the previous month: weight is the same as last month.
- Intermittent point: less routine weighing of children.
- The chart point is lower than the previous month: the child's weight has dropped.
Losing weight often occurs, especially when the child starts to enter the age of 6 months, when the teeth have started to grow.
While teething, the child will have a low-grade fever and his appetite will decrease slightly.
If the child does not experience pain, but is still losing weight, the mother should immediately take him to the doctor.
In KMS, the terms children gain or not gain weight are denoted by the letters N and T. N, namely for weight gain and T for weight not increased.
Weight gain (N) means that the weight graph follows the growth line or the weight gain is the same as the minimum weight gain (KBM) or more.
Not gaining weight (T) means that the body weight graph flattens or decreases cutting the growth line below it or gaining weight less than the KBM.
How important is KMS for the growth of children under five?
Reporting from the official website of the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI), growth disorders are still a major health problem.
Therefore, activities to detect the growth of children in Indonesia still need to be improved.
Growth detection is a routine activity provided by health care providers at the level of basic health services such as health centers and at referral places such as hospitals.
This activity is carried out to determine whether a child's growth is normal or not. Both from a medical and statistical perspective using KMS.
As explained above, KMS functions to monitor children's development every month.
This monitoring can be done by parents by routinely bringing their little ones to the posyandu for weighing or body measurements.
A one-time measurement basically only shows the current size and does not provide information on changes that have occurred, such as whether there has been an increase or decrease.
Therefore, it is necessary to measure carefully and regularly to compare with previous measurements.
If after weighing it is known that there are indications of growth problems, you can immediately take corrective action more quickly and precisely before the problem gets worse.
Either by paying attention to more nutritious food intake for your little one or taking him to a health facility for treatment.
Without KMS, parents will find it difficult to monitor their children's changes as they grow and develop.
In fact, it is possible that there are changes that are gradual but continue to occur for a long time so that they are quite serious.
For example, a child's weight does not increase even though they have a good appetite.
For that, don't forget to monitor your child's growth, one of which is by bringing KMS every time you check your little one, ma'am!
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