Q: My daughter is 3 years and 2 months old. Her weight is 12.5 kg and her height is 89 cm. Please suggest some tonic that will improve her height and health.

A:Eighty nine cm for a 3 years old child is on the shorter side but that does not mean necessarily that your child is suffering from a disease, the treatment of which shall increase her height. A lot of times, a child is short because the parents are short. At times a child is born small, and continues to remain on the shorter side throughout. In general, the rate of growth slows down as the child grows older. A child gains as much as 25 cm during the first year of life, and only 10 cm each during the second and the third year. After that the rate goes down even more. So, your impression that the child is not growing might actually be your observation of a slower rate of height gain that's totally normal for her age. If your child has no major medical problem, is active and eats normally, I suggest you just have her height monitored at 3-6 monthly intervals to ensure that her rate of growth is normal. However, if there are other associated problems, get your child examined by a paediatrician. There is no magic remedy, or tonics, that will increase a child's height beyond her/his potential for growth.