Overview & Schedule

Well visits are a time for us to discuss and evaluate your child’s development and educational progress, to review growth and nutrition, to complete appropriate vaccinations, and to do screening bloodwork. Below are some links and information to help you prepare for your visit.

All children should be seen for periodic physicals (a.k.a. “well child visit”, “checkup”, “health maintenance visit”) on the following schedule of ages:

• 3 days (or 1 day after nursery discharge, whichever is later)
• 2 weeks
• 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, and 30 months
• yearly starting at age 3y and continuing through adolescence

The purpose of these visits is twofold – screening & prevention. During these visits your doctor or nurse practitioner will SCREEN for problems by asking you (and as they get older, your child) questions and by doing a thorough physical exam. Both will focus on issues particularly relevant to the age of your child. The goal of screening is to identify problems early, so we can intervene before they get too big. During these visits we also engage in a variety of PREVENTION measures. Perhaps the most important of these is administering childhood immunizations against vaccine-preventable illnesses. Prevention also includes providing you and your child anticipatory guidance about diet, development, and a variety of other health related topics. As part of this process, we encourage you to think ahead of time about what questions you may want answered at these visits (it helps to bring a list!).

The articles in this section of our web site are meant to supplement what we do during well child care, and give you easy access on a year round basis to the kinds of information we might typically discuss only during a periodic physical. We hope you find them helpful.