Your child should not only see the pediatrician for an illness, it is also important to schedule well-child-care exams regularly, beginning in infancy. Also called well-care visits or checkups, these routine examinations provide the best opportunity for the doctor or nurse practitioner to observe the progress of your child's physical and mental growth and development; to counsel and teach parents; to detect problems through screening tests; to provide immunizations, and to get to know one another. Well-care visits are strongly recommended as part of preventive pediatric care.
Well-child visits are also a good time for parents to raise questions and concerns about a child's development, behavior, nutrition, safety and overall well-being.
Yearly well-child visits begin at age 3.
Age | Special Tests/Procedures | Routine Immunizations |
---|---|---|
Birth | Hearing Newborn blood screen |
✔️ |
2-3 days after hospital discharge | ||
2 weeks | ||
2 months | ✔️ | |
4 months | ✔️ | |
6 months | ✔️ | |
9 months | ||
12 months | Lead, anemia screening if at risk Fluoride varnish application |
✔️ |
15 months | ✔️ | |
18 months | Fluoride varnish application | ✔️ |
24 months | M-CHAT-R/FTM Autism Screening* Lead, anemia screening if at risk Fluoride varnish application |
|
30 months | Fluoride varnish application | |
3 years | Vision | |
4-5 years | Vision, hearing | ✔️ |
6-10years | Vision, hearing | |
11 years | Vision, hearing | ✔️ |
12-15 years | Vision, hearing | |
16 years | Vision, hearing | ✔️ |
17 years+ | Vision, hearing |
*The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised, with Follow-Up TM (M-CHAT-R/FTM) is a screening tool for autism in children 16-30 months old. More information is available here.