Growth and development go hand in hand. Growth includes progressive increase in size while development involves psychological and physiological changes including attainment of sensory and motor skills.
The maximum physical growth is seen in the first year of life. The infant doubles his birth weight by about 5 months of age and triples it by the end of the first year. The increase in length is 25cms during the first year. Development is also remarkable. Externally it is seen that an infant learns to feed himself and carry out other activities like crawling, walking, talking by the end of one year. Internal physiological changes also take place. The development of the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys are important for the introduction of new foods, as these internal changes enable the infant to ingest, digest, absorb and process more and more complex foods.
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