As you start your check list for your child's back to school clothes and supplies, now is a great time to add to your list a trip to the pediatrician for your child's well checkup and scheduled immunizations. A well visit is different from a sick visit because well visits allow your pediatrician to monitor and assess your child's overall health. At a well checkup, your pediatrician conduct a comprehensive review of your child's physical, emotional, and developmental well-being. It also gives parents the opportunity to raise questions and concerns regarding your child's health. From toilet training to learning problems, from social issues to healthy eating concerns, all these issues and topics can best addressed at a well visit instead of at sick visit when the focus is the illness.
"This is the time when the family unit and I can actually focus on the issues that normally get ignored as the individual 'fires' of each sick visit are put out," said Dr. Ghazala Khan, a pediatrician at The Children's Clinic of Lufkin. "In addition, during this time I am able to observe what the child is like when he/she is well, and develop a relationship that is very useful when they are sick."
At a well checkup visit, your pediatrician will perform a complete physical exam on your child, and then will evaluate your child's growth and development in order to determine if your child is on target with the normal developmental milestone parameters. Typically, your pediatrician will perform the following the tests and assessments.
• Recording height and weight
• Tracking growth and development
• Hearing screening
• Assess heart, lungs and intestines for irregularities
• Temperature measurement
• Reflexes
• Neonatal jaundice for newborns
• Should your child need immunizations, he or she will receive them at this visit.
Because a well check is so important to your child's total health care regimen, The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following well child visits schedule.
Newborns to Toddlers
• 3 to 5 days
• 1 month
• 2 months
• 4 months
• 6 months
• 9 months
• 12 months
• 15 months
• 18 months
• 24 months
• 30 months
Pre-school to Young Adult
• 3 years
• 4 years
• 5 years
• 6 years
• 7 years
• 8 years
• 9 years
• 10 years
• 11 years
• 12 years
• Once every year thereafter for an annual health screening.
Links to an up-to-date immunization schedule can be found on our website at thechildrenscliniclufkin.com under Parent Resources tab.
