Startup Story # 17: Now, an app to monitor your child’s growth

Anurag Sharma

Being a parent comes with a set of responsibilities that call for utmost care and attention. No amount of advice or reading prepares you to be the perfect parent. Just as the child takes one step at a time, parenting does too. This is where Innovative technology steps in to to make life simpler; Kidnurture is one such interesting start up (https://www.kidnurture.com/), started by Anurag Sharma that aims to get the parents to understand the importance of monitoring their child’s developmental growth while simplifying the process. This startup creates efficient child health care software solutions which is the first of its kind according to its founder.

After working in the software industry for 13 years, a personal experience triggered him to work on a concept such as Kidnurture. “Being a parent I noticed a gap between what paediatricians say and what is done. Paediatricians advise us you to monitor the growth and development. Despite coming from a family of doctors, I was unaware of so many developmental issues,” explains Sharma. Drawing an example from the movie Taare Zameen Par, where despite the child belonging to an affluent and educated family, it took them a while to recognise Dyslexia. Realising this was a serious concern that needed to be addressed, the entrepreneur studied paediatrics for a year. For his research,  he met 50- 100 doctors across India, all of whom were leading experts in the field.

“Developmental and social-emotional lags can be subtle and can occur in children who appear to be developing typically. Most children who could benefit from early intervention are not identified until they start school,” says Sharma. Early intervention being the key of the startup, they have narrowed down their focus to children with special needs and those born with risks, premature babies, and babies with low birth weight.

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The founder tells us how the software which can now be downloaded as an app is useful both for parents and doctors. “It’s a software tool for parents and doctors also organisations working for child health. We created it as a web product, where parents can create a profile for their kid; The software then guides them on what they should monitor and at what age. It gives them an analysis on whether the child is missing any milestone.” Being a learning tool for doctors, “it has automated standard paediatric tools and is a well thought out patient communication and engagement solution,” he adds.

Setting up his venture, Sharma faced some sales and marketing hurdles. His main challenge was to get parents to understand the need for it, but his intention to enforce early intervention remained strong. “Early intervention is the key for minimising the problems caused. It is the window where you can maximize the impact of your efforts. If you miss that window, then there are certain behavioural traits which are likely to form in the child, which then become difficult to address,” he added.

The startup continuously adds new features that provide a more holistic solution to their cause. When asked about his long-term goals with Kidnurture, Sharma proudly states, “We want to take it beyond India and make it a platform of choice for all professionals. Also, we want to reach out to rural areas where these issues are neglected in children. We are trying to work on a model where we can provide multilingual content.”

 

Zeenat Tinwala