Posts for category: Pediatric Healthcare
What parent doesn’t want to protect their child from getting injured or sick? While it will happen at some point, there are certainly ways that both you and your pediatrician can work together to ensure that your child doesn’t have to deal with completely avoidable injuries or illnesses. One way to do that is through regular wellness visits with your pediatrician.What is a wellness visit?
While you should bring your child into the doctor’s office when they are sick, this isn’t the only time that they should be visiting a pediatrician. Regular wellness visits allow your child’s doctor to continue to monitor their health and development throughout their childhood and teen years. A wellness or well-child visit typically involves:
- Recording your child’s height and weight
- Providing a detailed medical history of your child
- Checking vital signs
- Hearing and vision screenings (depending on the age)
- A full physical examination (painless and non-invasive)
- Additional testing or blood work, if necessary
- Vaccinations, as needed
- Answer any questions that the parent may have about their child’s health and provide information and advice on ways to keep your child healthy
Furthermore, children will need to go through a series of vaccines during the first few years of life. Vaccines are one of the best ways to protect your child from serious and potentially life-threatening diseases such as polio. By keeping up with your child’s wellness and vaccine schedule you ensure that you are providing your child with everything that they need to stay healthy.
Why are wellness visits so important?
As you can probably assume already, these checkups are the best way to prevent health problems from happening in the first place (which we can all agree is so much better than just treating the problem once it comes along). Other benefits of wellness visits include:
- Providing parents with support, peace of mind, and advice regarding everything from sleep schedules and diet to medications and behavioral concerns.
- Catch problems early on, whether physical, mental or behavioral, when they can easily be managed and treated through simpler and less invasive treatment options
- Having a doctor that becomes an important part of your family; someone you can trust and rely on to always be there for your child. After all, knowing that you have a doctor that you can turn to in an emergency is invaluable.
To ensure that your child grows up healthy and strong, they need to see a pediatrician for regular check-ups, screenings, and vaccines. These well-child visits are incredibly important for your child’s health and wellbeing and begin within the first week after your child is born. Since your child will be visiting a pediatrician regularly, you must find one that fits your family’s needs. Even before your baby is born you should shop around for a pediatrician so that once your baby comes into the world you can start giving them the routine check-ups and care they need for a healthy and long life.Getting Regular Check-ups
These check-ups are also important for parents, as it gives them a chance to ask questions they may have about their child’s sleeping and eating habits, or other behaviors their child may be displaying. During your child’s regular pediatric checkups, your doctor will check your child’s height, weight, vision, and hearing. These visits begin within the first five days after birth and will continue at:
- 1 month old
- 2 months old
- 4 months old
- 6 months old
- 9 months old
- 12 months old
- 15 months old
- 18 months old
- 24 months old
- 30 months old
- 3 years old
Getting Vaccinated
Looking for a pediatrician? Need to schedule your child’s next check-ups? Our pediatric team is here to address any questions and concerns you may have. From immunizations to sports injuries, we handle it all.
There is a lot of care and work that goes into raising a newborn, and your pediatrician is here to help right from the beginning. Your pediatrician typically sees your newborn for their very first appointment within a few days of being discharged from the hospital. Your pediatrician is here for you to ask any questions or address any 
concerns you may have about your newborn and caring for your newborn. Some of the topics that your pediatrician may discuss in that first visit are:
Feeding- Your pediatrician will watch your baby’s feeding habits during this period and make sure that their growth is right on schedule. During the first six months of your newborn’s life, you’ll feed them formula or breastmilk. Breastfed babies tend to eat more frequently than babies who are fed formula.
Sleep- Every baby has different sleep schedules and needs. Most newborns tend to sleep sixteen to seventeen hours a day, but only sleep a few hours at a time. Sleep cycles don’t tend to normalize until your baby is about six months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that healthy infants should sleep on their backs until they are able to roll over on their own.
Bathing- Infants do not usually require daily bathing, as long as the diaper area is thoroughly cleaned during changes, because daily bathing dry out their skin. Instead, it’s recommended to sponge bathe areas as needed.
Umbilical Cord Care- An infant’s umbilical cord should eventually dry up and fall off on its own by the time your baby is two weeks old. Until then, make sure to keep the area clean and dry by using sponge baths instead of submerging your baby in the tub. Small drops of blood are normal around the time that the umbilical cord is supposed to fall off. If you notice any active bleeding, foul-smelling yellowish discharge, or red skin around the stump, contact your pediatrician.
Your newborn should see their pediatrician at 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, and regularly throughout their life. Call your pediatrician for any questions on newborn care today!
Your child is eager to start the school year so they can participate in sports. That’s great news! Keeping your child active is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and sports can be a great experience for many children; however, it’s also important that your child’s pediatrician performs a yearly sports physical to make sure that they
are ready for physical activity.
A sports physical is necessary for every child regardless of their current health. In fact, some schools make it mandatory for children to get an annual sports physical before they participate in any school sports. Regardless of whether this physical is mandatory or not, it’s highly advised that all children get a sports physical once a year.
Your child’s sports physical will involve going through their medical history and conducting a physical examination. The physical examination is pretty self-explanatory. We will check their vitals, as well as their height and weight. We will perform a vision test and evaluate everything from their heart and respiratory system to their musculoskeletal system. The goal of a physical exam is to make sure that your child hasn’t incurred any past injuries or developed any health problems that could be exacerbated by physical activity.
A pediatrician can also answer questions and provide counseling on nutrition, healthy weight loss or gain, and habits that could help your child’s physical health. Remember to bring any questions along with you.
Besides the physical examination, we will also sit down with you and your child and ask questions about their medical history. It’s important to be as detailed as possible. If it’s the first time they are having a sports physical it’s important to bring in a list of any supplements or medications (both over-the-counter or prescription) that they are currently taking.
We will ask a series of questions to find out if there are any serious or chronic health problems that run in the family, if your child has experienced any past injuries, if they’ve ever undergone surgery or been hospitalized, if they have any allergies or if they have any current disorders or illnesses. It’s important to provide as much detailed history as possible so that our pediatric team can perform a thorough and comprehensive physical.
Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule your child’s sports physical. It’s important to get your child on the books before the summer is gone and the doctor’s schedule fills up. You don’t want your child being benched during the season because they didn’t get a sports physical. Call your pediatrician today.
Finding out you’re pregnant is a wonderfully exciting and whirlwind time. There are so many decisions to make as you watch your bump grow: What color should I paint the nursery? Do I want my little one to sleep with me? What do I need to childproof around the house? Of course, one of the most important things to think about
is the health of your little one throughout the course of your pregnancy and once they are born. It’s never too soon to choose a pediatrician, and taking the time to find one you trust is important not just for your baby but also for you.
Once your little one is born they will be spending a lot of time with their pediatrician, so this is why it’s crucial that you find out that provides gentle, compassionate care and really takes time with you and your baby. The first two years of your baby’s life are so very important because this marks a significant developmental time for them, so it’s essential that you have a pediatrician that will be there to monitor their progress and detect any developmental delays or health problems right away.
The first pediatric visit will occur a few days after the birth. This first visit is vital, as it allows your children’s doctor to make sure everything functions as it should. This includes everything from reflexes to alertness to their hearing. Measurements are also taken to check their height and weight and to begin recording their development. Besides performing a physical exam to check the overall health of the baby this is also a time to answer any questions you might have about feeding schedules, habits, developmental milestones, etc.
After this initial visit, you should expect to bring your little one in for visits at:
- 1 month
- 2 months
- 4 months
- 6 months
- 9 months
- 12 months
- 15 months
- 18 months
- 24 months (2 years old)
- 30 months
- 3 years old
Once your child turns 3 years old they will only need to visit a pediatrician once a year, unless there are any health problems or concerns in the interim. These visits are imperative for every child as they are key to preventing certain illnesses through immunizations and physical checkups, tracking their growth and development, and also providing you with answers and support to help you properly care for your little one along the way. Call a pediatrician to schedule your child’s first appointment today.