Well-child checkups

Whether you’re just welcoming baby home or your child is about to start high school, there’s one thing all kids need at least once a year: a visit with their pediatrician. A well-child visit is an opportunity for your child’s doctor to do a physical exam, provide routine vaccinations, and answer any questions you may have. They may conduct vision and hearing screenings, too.

Regular visits also allow your pediatrician to track your child’s development to ensure he or she is meeting milestones and prevent or detect health issues before they get serious. To benefit from everything your provider can offer, it’s important to keep up with these routine visits.

How often should your healthy child visit the doctor?

Well-child visits are scheduled frequently in the first two years of your baby’s life to monitor his or her growth and development.

Beginning at age 3, well-child visits happen just once a year until adolescence. A typical schedule of visits may include appointments at the following ages:

• Infancy: in the first 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months
• Early childhood: 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 2 years, 2.5 years
• Childhood and adolescence: yearly from age 3 to 18

Most providers will schedule your child’s next appointment before you leave the office, but you can also use the start of the school year as a reminder that it’s time for a visit.

Why are well-child visits important?

You may wonder why your healthy child needs to see the provider so often. But as you watch how rapidly your baby grows from infant to toddler to preschooler and beyond, you’ll see how much they change at each stage.

“Visits are scheduled at such a high frequency, especially in the first year, to monitor infants’ rapid growth and development and coincide with the immunization schedule. Each visit is scheduled right around the time of recommended vaccinations,” said Matt Paton, MD, a pediatrician with Baptist Pediatrics and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. "As children move through their first few years, we can help guide families through appropriate nutrition, injury prevention, dental care and preventive health, as well as screen for anemia, autism, heart disease, asthma and allergies, and vision or hearing deficits at certain ages."

Communication between parents and pediatricians is another important part of the well-child visit. Plan to ask about the health and development of your child and bring up any concerns, even if they seem small or insignificant. Your pediatrician will likely ask you and your child questions, too, and give you information relevant to your child's age.