Pediatric Wellness Exams at IM&PC

Why Should I Schedule A Pediatric Wellness Exam For My Child

As a parent, especially a parent with young children, there are few things more important to you than the health of your children. In fact, your children’s health may be the most important thing for you. You want them to be healthy, safe, and well on their way to living a long and wonderful life.

That can all start with a pediatric wellness exam.

To ensure that your child’s health is as good as it can be, you need to develop a strong relationship between you, your child, and your pediatrician.

Pediatric care is important for several reasons, not the least of which is your children’s health. By starting your children early visiting doctors, they will develop a trusting relationship with pediatric doctors and that will extend into their adulthood and continued health with annual checkups. Building trust with pediatric doctors will ensure your child does not avoid the doctor when they are an adult.

The first pediatric care visit for your child should come about one week after they are born. This first visit will consist of a general health exam and any screening tests that were not done at the hospital. The pediatric doctor will ask how the baby is feeding, the doctor will also measure and weigh your baby. The doctor may also look for any signs of jaundice.

From this point, you should schedule visits with pediatric doctors for your child at two, four, six, nine and 12 months of age. From one-year-old onwards, you can go in at 18 months, and then every two years from that point until your child reaches their teen years.

A typical pediatric wellness exam is going to include checking blood pressure, vision, hearing, listening to lungs, feeling the abdomen, and looking for any signs of tuberculosis, lead exposure and anemia. Visits later in the child’s life will look for signs of depression and anxiety so those conditions can be managed properly.

There are many benefits to a pediatric wellness exam, or a well-child visit, for your child.

One benefit is that through pediatric care, you will be able to track your child’s development and growth over the course of several visits. You will be able to talk to the pediatric doctors about how your child is coming along physically, cognitively, emotionally and socially. Pediatricians can also provide a guide for parents to monitor their child’s development.

Another benefit of pediatric care is that you can speak with the pediatrician not only about your children’s health, but also prevention. You can review strategies to ensure that your child is free from injury, and you can keep your child up to date when it comes to vaccines. You can also address important issues such as sleeping habits, nutrition, and overall physical activity.

A third benefit is the diagnosis of conditions that may not be readily apparent initially. These include the aforementioned depression and anxiety but can also include diagnosing ADHD and learning disorders.

Regular visits with your pediatrician will also include the child doctor monitoring the speech patterns of your child. This will allow the doctor to determine if there is any sort of developmental delay or if there is a disability present. Typically, you will want your child to be screened for developmental delays by the time they are nine months old, and then at the age of two and the age of three.

Before you go for a wellness visit to get pediatric care for your child, make notes on things you have noticed about your child’s health and their development. At the same time, make sure that you have a list of questions to ask the pediatric doctor. Put the most important questions first and plan for another visit if you have quite a few questions. You should also gather as much information as you can to give to your pediatric doctor. Share information you have received from the school, including your child’s individualized Education Program, or any child care they receive so that you can help the child doctor learn as much as possible about your son or daughter.

After the visit is over, keep a to-do list of tips that your doctor provided you with to ensure your child’s continued health.

Our children’s health is incredibly important to us. As a parent, you want your child to be healthy and happy. To that end, pediatric care is your first step to ensure that your child is going to live a long and happy life. From nearly the moment they are born until they can go to the doctor themselves, a visit with pediatric doctors will keep your child healthy and watch for anything that may be an issue in the future.

For that reason, wellness checks with a pediatric doctor are incredibly important and they will help your child develop a trusting relationship with doctors that will last into their adulthood.