A wellness checkup or exam is a preventive care service aimed to help you maintain good health and stop issues from ever occurring. Instead of waiting to get sick, you can always visit a family physician to get examined for potential health concerns early on.

Wellness Checkups for Children
Your child will need wellness checkups at ages:

• 2 weeks
• 2 months
• 4 months
• 6 months
• 9 months
• 12 months
• 15 months
• 18 months
• 2 years
• 2 1/2 years
• 3 years
• 4 years
• 5 years

This ensures that your child is developing as he/she should. Moreover, your doctor can see if your child needs supplements, requires food restrictions, or other lifestyle changes to keep him/her growing strong and healthy.

During these checkups, your healthcare provider will assess your child’s physical and emotional development, give guidance and immunizations (shots), and do any needed tests.

Wellness checkups are also a great time to talk with your healthcare provider about concerns or questions about your child’s development (physical, mental, or social).

If your child does not reach a particular milestone for his age, don’t worry. Your family doctor can help you recognize signs if you think your child may have a developmental delay.

The benefits of wellness checkups include tracking your child’s growth and development. Your doctor will review your child’s growth since the last visit and talk with you about your child’s development.

These visits are a time to review and discuss the critical areas of your child’s development, including physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Family doctors often use a resource called Bright Futures to assess and guide discussions with parents about child development.

Another benefit of a wellness visit is the opportunity to talk about prevention. For many children in the country, the most common cause of harm is a preventable injury or illness. The wellness visit is an opportunity to review critical strategies to protect your child from injuries, such as reviewing car seat use and safe firearm storage. It is also an opportunity to ensure your child is protected from infectious diseases by reviewing and updating his/her immunizations.

If there is a family history of a particular illness, parents can discuss strategies to prevent that illness for their child. Healthy behaviors are essential to instill at a young age, and the wellness checkup is a time to review these behaviors, such as sleep, nutrition, and physical activity.

During a wellness checkup, your doctor will:

• Perform a physical exam
• Give the child any necessary shots (immunizations or vaccinations)
• Track how your child is growing and developing
• Talk about illness prevention, diet and physical fitness, and health and safety issues
• Talk about how to handle emergencies and sudden illness

Make sure your doctor isn’t doing all the talking. The wellness visit is your best opportunity to bring up any worries about your child’s growth and development, especially if your child is not reaching important milestones. Remember, your doctor may be an expert in children’s health, but you are the expert on your child. That means you know his/her habits, his/her likes and dislikes, and his/her overall character. If you feel that there is anything odd, don’t be afraid to ask questions, medical or otherwise.

Our family doctors at Highland Family Medicine in Murfreesboro, TN, can give you valuable advice on how to promote your child’s learning and development, how to potty train, tips on playground safety, and more. We’re all about holistic health care, and you can count on us to help you out.