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 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.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends this schedule for routine well-care visits:
- 3 to 5 days
- 15 months
- 1 month
- 18 months
- 2 months
- 24 months
- 4 months
- 30 months
- 6 months
- 3 years
- 9 months
- 4 years
- 12 months
- And once every year thereafter
PLEASE NOTE: Each annual health supervision visit includes a physical exam, as well as a developmental, behavioral, and learning assessment.
