Planning
Guidelines for estimating the month and year of birth of young children
How to estimate a child’s age by using a local calendar of events
Authors:
G. Kennedy; S. Kennedy; M.C. Dop; IFAD; European Union
Publisher:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , 2008
A child’s age is an essential piece of information for evaluating the many facets of the child’s nutritional status. Several core food security and nutrition indicators relating to children require age for their construction. However, in many countries, there is no custom of recording children’s date of birth, so it becomes necessary to estimate their age. This can be done by asking the child’s mother, father or primary caretaker a series of questions in order to approximate the month and year of birth.
These guidelines outline the use of a local calendar of events to estimate a child’s birth date. They are intended for health care workers, survey trainers and other persons who need to collect accurate information on child age in situations where there is no accurate written record of date of birth or a tradition of remembering birth dates.
Guidance and tools are provided for areas including :
- Age Estimation Techniques
- How to Design and Construct a Calendar of Events
- How to use the calendar
- Training of Survey Interviewers
- Quality Enhancement checks
