Well-Child Care Exams
Well-child care exams allow you to monitor your child's health and ensure that your child is growing and developing normally. Think of well-child care exams as preventative checks. They help ensure your child's well-being and allow our team at Rexburg Pediatrics to administer treatment if we detect anything unusual.
The frequency of well-child care checkups is determined by your child's age and health. With each visit, our physicians can learn more about your child and get a better grasp of their overall health and development. Each well-child care exam is tailored to your child’s age, general health, and any existing symptoms.
Most children have more visits in their first few years of life, then less as they become older. Our clinicians also advise your kid to come in for developmental assessments at certain intervals until the age of five.
What Does a Well-child Care Exam Include?
A well-child care checkup allows you to monitor your child's growth and development to ensure that everything is progressing normally. The checkup also aims to promote healthy growth, identify possible health conditions early, and avoid injury and sickness via education.
Much of the examination can be completed by using the parent's history and monitoring the child's behavior, locomotion, speech, and interactions with others in the room.
Each well-child care exam includes the following:
- Measurements of height and weight
- Screening for developmental issues
- Mental health examination
- Hearing and vision tests
- Anemia testing
- Lead testing
- Urinalysis
During the exam, our providers will answer all of your questions regarding your child's health. If they discover that your child is falling behind in development in any manner, or if they see any health concerns, they’ll work with you to help determine the best treatment options moving forward.
They may also suggest adjustments you may make at home, such as changing your child's diet or cleanliness practices. Maintaining an ongoing relationship between the physician and your child is important to overall treatment quality.
Developmental Milestones for Each Age Up to 5 Years Old
Developmental milestones are a set of abilities or age-appropriate tasks that most children complete by age. These achievements are usually divided into four categories:
Cognitive capacity: This relates to your child’s ability to think, learn and solve issues.
Speech and language: Your child’s ability to absorb and learn language and how they use language to communicate are important milestones.
Social and emotional: This refers to a child’s ability to express emotions effectively, ability to follow rules and directions, and form positive and healthy relationships.
Physical development: A child's capacity to master large and fine motor abilities such as sitting up, crawling, and walking are important for physical developmental milestones.
Regular well-child care checkups keep your children healthy and can help them avoid illness and disease. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends a schedule for post-birth checkups for kids/children/babies. These are to be performed at 5 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, and every year beginning at age 3.
Let’s look at the recommended frequency of visits for each age group up to 5 years old:
0 to 1 Year
Your newborn should get their first exam during the first week of life. They are seen again at 2 weeks of age to verify proper growth. Following that visit, they are seen regularly at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months to follow up on growth, nutrition, and developmental milestones.
1 to 3 Years
Following their one-year checkup, your kid should ideally have additional well-child care exams at 15 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, and 36 months. We recommend that your child get developmental tests at 18, 24, and 30 months throughout this time frame.
3 to 5 Years
At the age of three, your child may decrease their well-child care checkups to once a year. At this age, your child will still have developmental tests, but they will be shorter and administered as part of their well-child care appointment.
5 Years & Up
Beginning at the age of five, your child can generally attend one well-child care exam each year around their birthday. Annual exams for children ensure proper growth and development into adulthood.
The Benefits of Well-Child Care Checkups
There are various benefits of well-child care checkups for both parents and children. Let’s look at a few:
Address Your Concerns
During a well-child care appointment, you will be able to discuss important developmental milestones for your child's age group. These visits are an excellent opportunity to address any concerns you may have regarding sleep, safety, and what to expect as your kid develops.
Prevention
Because children develop quickly, their health is constantly changing as well. Regular well-child care checkups throughout childhood can aid in the prevention of significant medical problems and give necessary therapy early in the course of a disease to avoid serious consequences. Parents sometimes fail to identify indicators of illness in their children. Well-child care checkups can help in the diagnosis and treatment of such diseases and illnesses.
Collaboration
Seeing your child’s doctor frequently allows you and your doctor to collaborate as a team, finding solutions for issues your child may have and learning easy measures to promote health at home and school. Establishing a positive relationship with your child's pediatrician establishes a pattern of healthy behaviors that may be carried over into adulthood.
Keep to Schedules
Regular well-child care checkups guarantee that your child receives all necessary vaccines on schedule. It is critical for the child's general health and well-being in the long term since these immunizations give protection against a variety of life-threatening illnesses.
Schedule a Well-child Care Exam For Your Child
Regular well-child care exams are the foundation of your child's health and wellbeing at every age and stage of growth and development. We recommend scheduling these appointments with your child's regular doctor as far in advance as possible.
Our specialty is children! We are committed to providing your kid with the finest possible care and keeping them healthy and happy. Our caregivers are eager to help you in achieving your goal of raising bright, caring, and responsible children.
We value your child’s comfort and trust, and will work with you and your child to overcome any existing or future health difficulties. We are here to provide you with medical care for your child from infancy through adolescence and beyond.
Call us now to schedule a well-child care exam for your child today!