Your baby will grow over the months of the study. It's important for the accuracy of the machine learning algorithm we are developing to keep a record of arm and hand dimensions as they change.
On the day that your baby interacts with HUGS, use the tape provided to measure the following arm and hand dimensions:
On BOTH the right and left; and
Using the centimeter side of the tape measure.
You will have 10 measurements for each HUGS session.
Try to get your baby to stretch his/her arm out before you try to take a measurement.
If there is someone to help you, that might be very good.
Just do the best you can. It is difficult to find these anatomical landmarks on a baby.
Measure the palm from the wrist to the end of the middle finger.
Place the measuring tape between the thumb and forefinger; Wrap at the lateral crease (just below the knuckles on the back of the hand.
There are two ways you could record your baby's measurements. Let the Study Team know which one would be preferable.
We developed a quick survey on SurveyMonkey that asks you to enter your baby's measurements and to tell us about anything that might have been going on with your baby during testing that might affect how s/he interacted with HUGS. For instance, if she had just had baby shots or was teething.
If you jot the measurements down on a piece of paper, this might be an easy way to record the data.
You can do it easily on your phone.
Alternatively, we have placed a spreadsheet template, titled "Growth Chart," on the study laptop.
You can navigate to it following the path .\Documents\[laptop name]\Measurements\GrowthChart.xlsx
An advantage of the spreadsheet is that you can see your baby's growth as the months progress.
If you are comfortable with spreadsheet software, you can make a graph and save it. (The study team could help you do this as well.)