ДИНАМИКА ВО ВРЕМЕНИ ПРОЦЕССОВ РОСТА И РАЗВИТИЯ БЕЛОРУССКИХ ДЕТЕЙ ПЕРВЫХ ТРЕХ ЛЕТ ЖИЗНИ (1993–2013 ГОДЫ)

In the city of Baranovichi (Brest Region), from 2008 to 2016, the author of the present article conducted a longitudinal study on the physical development of children from birth to three years, born in 1993–1994, 2003–2004 and 2013. The purpose of the study is to identify the nature of changes over a 20-year period (from 1993 to 2013) of the main indicators of the physical development of children in the early stages of postnatal ontogenesis. The object of the study consists of 599 children of both sexes (303 boys and 296 girls). The indicators of body length and weight (from birth to 3 years), as well as the head and chest circumference (up to 1 year) were assessed. Anthropometric data were taken from the medical records of the children’s city polyclinic No.1 in Baranovichi (Brest Region, Belarus). With a gradual improvement in the economic status of the country from 1993 to 2013, an increase in body length was observed in children of both sexes (p<0,01) with a relatively stable body weight. The head and chest circumferences became smaller, and in some age periods (from 3 to 9 months) the changes reached a statistically significant level (p<0,001–0,05). Children born in 2003–2004 differ from the others in lower indicators of physical development, especially of the head and chest circumference. It can be assumed that the economic, social and environmental troubles of the country in the 1990s. negatively affected the formation of the organism of children not only at the most ecosensitive early stage of ontogenesis, but also in adolescence, and a decade later, in the next generation, this was accompanied by a significant reduction in girth body dimensions due to the gracilization of the skeleton.