Regular wellness visits are very important to your child’s well being. They give you the opportunity to get to know your child’s primary medical care giver and for the practitioner to assess your child's growth, development, and general health. Your child’s developmental milestones will be assessed at each well visit during the first several years of their life. It's also important to schedule wellness visits frequently when your child is young. The first three years of life are when your child makes huge leaps in both physical and mental development. These visits can be scheduled less as your child gets older.

We recommend visits at the following ages:

• Prenatal Visit with your pediatrician before your baby is born if you choose
• Newborn Hospital Visit (this is automatic if you have chosen our practice)
• Office visit 2-3 days after leaving the hospital, checking the baby's weight and assessing for jaundice - usually scheduled at the time of discharge
• 1 Month, 2 Month, 3 Month, 4 Month, 6 Month, 9 Month, 12 Month, 15 Month, 18 Month and 24 Month Wellness Visits
• Annual Wellness Visit from 3 Years to 21 Years of Age, depending on your insurance carrier

What to Expect During Your Wellness Visit

At each wellness visit, we will review the following topics with you:

• Any illness since the last visit
• Daily routine: eating, sleeping, elimination habits
• Developmental milestones
• Child care arrangements / school performance
• Emotional and behavioral health
• Vaccination schedule

Biological parent(s) or legal guardians of your child are the only ones who are permitted to bring them to either well visits or for vaccinations. For a sick visit, anyone whom the parent has officially authorized may bring them. Well visits are a time for the parent to ask questions and give providers a sense of the ongoing health and life history of their child between visits. Our practice stands by the policy that children under 18 need a parental consent for vaccinations. If the child is under the care of a legal guardian who is not the parent, then we must have the documentation on file in our office.

During the visit, our provider will answer any questions you might have and address any concerns. At every well visit, your child will be weighed and measured. They will also be given a physical exam to assess their blood pressure, head, ears, eyes, heart, chest and lungs, nose, throat, mouth, genitals, nervous system, skeletal system and skin. These are all important exams that help ensure your child's health and normal development.

Your doctor will also monitor your child’s development at each well visit and will assess this partly by your report on written surveys but primarily through discussion with you and your child.

In the early years, the major developmental areas that are assessed include gross motor (sitting, crawling, standing, walking), fine motor (pincer grasp, coloring), language, which includes both expressive (speech) and receptive (understanding). If a significant delay or problem is noted, we may refer your child to ECI or Early Childhood Intervention for evaluation.

As your child grows older, we continue to monitor their physical growth, but also seek to make sure they are developing in healthy ways socially, emotionally, behaviorally and psychologically. We are happy to refer you to a mental health practitioner when needed.

Schedule Your Child's Wellness Visit

Please call our team today at 203-469-8882 to schedule a wellness visit for your child or to ask any questions you may have.