Making Time For Well Checks

For different ages and life stages, here are some reasons for scheduling routine visits with your GP in 2023.

- Amy Greenburg

Baby and children’s well checks

Even if your child appears to be perfectly healthy, regular visits to the paediatrician can be essential in ensuring your child’s optimal health, explains DR MEGHA JASM, a paediatrician based at IMC Children’s. Each well visit is an opportunity to monitor your child’s growth, and assess if they are meeting the appropriate milestones associated with gross and fine motor skills, vision, hearing and social development.

For babies

Baby’s well visits start soon after they leave the hospital, and many coincide with vaccinations. So, in addition to a well check one week after birth, this usually means visits at one, two, four, six, nine, 12, 15 and 18 months, explains Dr Jasm.

At IMC Children’s, these well consultations include:

• physical examination by a paediatrician;

• identification and discussion of any new issues;

• developmental assessment;

• growth screening including height, weight, head circumference and BMI measurement;

• discussion about your child’s diet, sleep, hygiene, behavioural patterns and bowel habits; and

• referrals, if necessary.

The visits also allow for vaccine review and any updates based on overseas schedules, if desired.

“At IMC, we work with parents to customise their children’s vaccinations to incorporate additional vaccines from parental countries of origin to allow ease of travel and relocation,” says Dr Jasm.

What’s more, it’s a good time for parents to discuss any concerns or challenges, and get evidence-based advice on everything from breastfeeding and weight gain to bowel movements and weaning.