Well baby checkups are important for you as a parent and for your child, this article will help you by giving information about the first visits to the doctor.
Child health supervision visits, which are also known as well baby check-ups, represent opportunities for you to assure that all aspects of your child's health are going well. Biological, developmental, psychological, and social information will be exchanged between you and your doctor. In the beginning, there will be emphasis on detecting physical and biological abnormalities through frequent examinations and screening tests, as well as prevention of disease with immunizations.
As your child grows, there will be continued interest in physical problems, older children will be checked for vision and hearing and adolescents for sexual development. However, it is likely that more time will be devoted to guidance about injury prevention, parenting issues, such as discipline, and your own concerns about behavior, day care, schooling, and sex education. The time devoted to these issues is just as important as the time devoted to looking for physical abnormalities during the first few visits. During your initial visit with your doctor, developing a relationship is of great importance.
The first visit generally occurs within the first two weeks after birth. By now, parents have come to know some of the unique characteristics of their baby and often have many questions. Besides this initial visit, at least three more visits in the first year and two in the second will be required. Immunizations will be given during these visits. There is nothing magical about well-baby visits. The purpose of the visits is to help you and your child, so schedule additional visits periodically when and if you have concerns.
Well-baby visits provide an excellent opportunity for parents to question the practitioner about any concern including feeding, safety, learning, and so forth. Many parents have their first contact with their child's doctor before the baby is born. This visit is an excellent opportunity to discuss development, and behavior of young children.
Besides a check on your child's development, the most important parts of the well-baby examination are the simple measurements of the infant's height, weight and head circumference. Head measurements are important because there are several correctable problems in development of the skull and of the brain that may be detected during the first few months of life. Periodic measurements of height and weight should be carried out throughout childhood. These measurements are useful in detecting nutritional problems and in detecting metabolic or glandular growth disturbances.
Examination of the hips is especially important in infants. Detection of dislocated hips is difficult at birth, and this examination should be repeated after a month or so. The feet should also be examined carefully in newborn infants and during the first few months of life. Careful practitioners will examine the child's feet and legs and assure you of their proper development.
By the time children are school age, your doctor should be checking for curvature of the child's back by having the child perform a toe-touching maneuver. Periodic examination of your child's eyes is also necessary. Infants are capable of seeing at birth, and their eyes can follow you around the room. Three and four year olds should be tested during doctor visits. Hearing disturbances can also interfere with the child's development. Newborns will startle after hearing a sound, and later turn to locate the sound. There are elaborate methods that have been devised for testing the hearing of infants; the best way to assess hearing ability is to assess the ability to talk clearly. You can not learn to talk if you can not hear. Fortunately, most parents know their children; this is the reason that most parents are the first ones to notice hearing problems.
The statement by a doctor that a child has a heart murmur is enough to strike terror into the heart of many parents. Certain heart murmurs are normal in children! A murmur is just the sound of blood rushing through the heart. In fact, during a fever, during excitement, or after exercise, a heart murmur can be heard in almost any child, this does not mean heart disease. If this is any doubt, discuss this with your doctor.
There are many other aspects of well-child examinations; almost anything can be noted for the first time at such an examination.
