Kids and Health Care: Very Young Kids
When your child was first born, you may remember the preventive or "well-baby" visits that you made to the pediatrician maybe once a week for the first few weeks and once a month or every other month for the first six months.
In these early appointments, there is a lot of measuring and simple testing. The most common elements of these checkups are:
- Measurement of the baby's length, weight and head circumference. Growth is usually plotted on an individual growth chart - and compared to the population generally.
- A physical examination to check for normal function of the eyes, ears, heart, lungs, abdomen, arms and legs, etc. Examination of the baby's soft spot (the fontanel) at the top of the head - and the baby's mouth for signs of teething.
- A review of your baby's physical and emotional development through both observation and your report of his progress. Can he hold up his head? Is he rolling over? Is he attempting to sit up after six months? Is he trying to use his hands more and more? How does he react to strangers?
- A discussion of the baby's nursing and eating habits, including suggested schedules for moving to solid foods and away from breastfeeding.
In short, the doctor is checking for problems - and eliminating as many common ones as he or she can from simple testing, direct examination and speaking with you.
This process-of-elimination approach to caring for a child is much different than the work-backwardfrom-problem approach that doctors and nurses in emergency rooms use. It's less invasive, less expensive - and better for the child, in the long-run. Preventive medicine is important because it recognizes potential problems early and can act before problems manifest themselves.
Unfortunately, many parents and doctors move away from regular checkups when a child gets older than about three years. After that, the child will often see a doctor once a year - or when something's wrong. Whichever is less often. That's bad. The regular-checkup model from early childhood should continue through all of childhood (and, for that matter, through life). Many pediatricians think a child should have a general checkup twice a year.
And, if you have a managed care plan, the cost of those checkups is usually not a factor.
