About Grow With Us
REACH: Grow With Us is a new study within the wider REACH research programme. It will follow 400 Sheffield children as they grow, to find better ways to measure children’s bodies and health.
- Who: 400 children from all backgrounds across Sheffield
- When: children join at age 3 or 4, and we start in September 2027
- How often: one visit a year, until your child is 9 or 10
- Where: the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University [confirm locations for each measurement]
Grow With Us is currently in its co-design phase. We are not yet recruiting families for the main study. Children, families and professionals are first helping us design it through our co-design study, REACH: Little Bodies, Big Voices. Everything on this page describes our current plans, which may change as a result. Join Little Bodies, Big Voices to help shape the study.
We take a range of body and health measurements at each visit, using equipment you may not have seen before, such as 3D body scanners. Every child is welcome, whatever their size, shape or background.
Part of REACH
Grow With Us is one of several linked studies within REACH (Revolutionising and Evaluating Anthropometry for Children’s Health), a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship led by Dr Alice Bullas at Sheffield Hallam University. REACH also includes:
- REACH: Measuring the Evidence, a review of existing research on measuring children’s bodies and health
- REACH: Little Bodies, Big Voices, our co-design study, which is shaping how Grow With Us will run
- REACH: Every Body, Every Voice, regional workshops and a national survey on which measurements children and families find acceptable
- REACH: Making Every Measurement Count, which invites researchers to help get the most from every Grow With Us visit
- Child Anthrobank, a planned repository of child body measurement data
Why it matters
Doctors, nurses and schools often use BMI (a measure of weight for height) to check whether a child is a healthy size. BMI is quick and simple, but it gets this wrong for many children:
- it cannot tell the difference between fat and muscle
- it works less well for children of different ages, body sizes and ethnicities
- it can miss changes in body fat as children grow
This matters because measurements decide which children are offered support, how health services are planned, and how products such as car seats and school uniforms are designed.
Grow With Us will compare simple body measurements against detailed scans and health checks, year after year. This will show which measurements tell us most about a child’s health as they grow, so that every child can be measured fairly and accurately in future.
Who can take part
We will invite children aged 3 to 4 who live in Sheffield. We welcome children of every body size, gender, social background and ethnicity. We especially want to hear from families who do not usually take part in research.
Making it easy to take part
We want every family to feel able to take part. We offer:
- travel expenses for each visit
- visits on a range of days and times
- translators and translated information
- measurement clothing in a range of sizes and styles, including modest options
- a calm, private measurement space
Designed with families
Grow With Us is in its co-design phase now, and children and families are helping us design every part of it. Children aged 3 to 10, parents, carers and professionals are telling us how to invite families, explain each measurement, set up the measurement space and say thank you, through our co-design study, REACH: Little Bodies, Big Voices. Families in South Yorkshire can register to take part.
A public involvement panel of children and families will continue to advise us throughout the study.
Looking after your child’s information
- We give your child a study code, and keep names and contact details separately from their measurements.
- We store all information securely on Sheffield Hallam University systems.
- We remove or blur anything that could identify your child in 3D scans and other images.
- We never publish information that could identify your child or family.
- We follow UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
The anonymous data will form part of Child Anthrobank, a planned repository of child body measurement data. Researchers, health services and designers will be able to apply to use it under strict privacy and security rules, helping make research, services and products work better for all children.
What we will learn
Grow With Us will help us understand:
- how body fat is linked to heart and metabolic health in children
- which simple body measurements best reflect body fat and health as children grow
- how well quick, low-cost methods agree with detailed scans such as MRI
We will look at every result across different body sizes, ages, genders, backgrounds and ethnicities, so that our findings work for all children. We will share what we learn with families, health services, policymakers and researchers. All plain-language summaries will appear on this page.
REACH: Making Every Measurement Count
Each Grow With Us visit asks a lot of young children and their families, and we want every visit to count. REACH: Making Every Measurement Count invites researchers from Sheffield and across the UK to:
- use Grow With Us data to answer questions in their own field
- suggest a measure, questionnaire or method that could sit alongside our sessions with minimal extra burden for children
Any additional measure would need to fit within session time, suit children from age 3 and pass ethical review. REACH has no budget for additions, so anything needing extra resources would need separate funding, which we can support with letters of support.
Our first researcher roundtable takes place on Wednesday 20 January 2027, 10:00 to 13:00, at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, Sheffield. Register your interest or request a phone call. [Add link to the Making Every Measurement Count page.]
Register your interest
Would you like to hear when your family can take part? Contact Dr Alice Bullas directly (a.bullas@shu.ac.uk).
Grow With Us will begin only once it has full ethical approval.
Contact us
Please email Dr Alice Bullas at a.bullas@shu.ac.uk with any questions about Grow With Us.
Grow With Us is part of REACH, funded by a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/X03349X/1). Read more about REACH here: https://research.shu.ac.uk/shusize/reach-revolutionising-and-evaluating-anthropometry-for-childrens-health/