Routine health check-up: at one month

The goal of regular preventive health check-up examinations (systematic examinations) is to preserve and improve the health of your child. The medical team might include your family doctor, or GP or a paediatrician and a nurse. Pediatric team: the paediatrician and pediatric nurse. They will undertake the planned activities, but will also leave you enough time for your questions and dilemmas.

The first routine health check-up visit is always an event that causes special excitement for both parents. It is an opportunity to check the health condition of your child, assess the progress of the child, but also how you have coped with the new role of a parent. 

Preparing for the visit 

  • Both parents may come to the routine health check-up with your child. You need the same information and recommendations for daily activities around the child, because together you support his development and help each other in the parental role.  

  • You will bring the newborn health records ,and other health documentation for the child, if available. 

Contents of the health check-up visit  

  • Growth monitoring:  a nurse will measure length, weight and head circumference of your child and enter these values in the growth charts. 

  • Introduction to personal and family history (anamnestic data): At the first routing health check-up, expect a lot of questions related to pregnancy, childbirth, the possible presence of some risk factors for the child's health (such as family diseases, birth health problems, social status, etc.) but also support factors (harmonious family relations, support of close relatives, etc.). 

  • Your doctor will get acquainted with the contents of the newborn’s health records and the attached medical documentation. 

  • Nutrition: Your doctor or nurse will check how your baby is eating: whether she is exclusively breastfed; how often, whether at her request; do you have problems with breastfeeding; what is mother’s diet etc. You will receive information about importance and benefits and advantages of exclusive breastfeeding including optimal nutrition, defense, love, closeness, encouragement and support for development and maturation Take the opportunity to ask anything you are interested in about nutrition or some challenges you might be experiencing, like baby cramps and cries and to have reasonable expectations of your baby sleep. If you need additional help and support, you will receive guidance on how and where to look for it. 

  • Healthy life style:The nurse or the doctor will emphasize the rules for healthy sleep rules and prevention of passive smoking.

  • The nurse may also perform screening for maternal depression to ensure safe and optimal treatment for the baby at home. 

  • Your doctor or nurse will comment on your child's progress and check if you are giving the child the necessary vitamins.. 

Pediatric examination and assessment of development  

Your doctor will perform a clinical examination of your child in the planned order: will check the appearance of the skin; feel the head, fontanelles, neck; examine eyes, ears, nose, throat; listen to the heart and lungs; check the umbilical cord and feel the abdomen; perform an examination of the buttocks, anus and surrounding skin; will check the reflexes, muscle tone and how the child is held in certain positions, the condition of the hips. 

  • During the examination, a doctor or a nurse will show you how to communicate with the child. They will emphasize how important it is to talk and sing to the child in all situations such as feeding, changing, bathing, playing. You will hear how important reading is from the first day. Even though the child does not understand you, he listens to your voice which makes him confident and satisfied. It will give you more ideas for early stimulation, as you might also receive some written materials on how to support the child's development in the coming period. 

  • You will be provided with advice on how to support child development because this is the period when the child learns and progresses the fastest. 

Vaccination  

Your doctor or nurse will check if your child has received the necessary vaccines at the maternity hospital and, if so, will order a second dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, which will be given to the upper leg. 

  • If the child, for some reason, has not received the necessary vaccines against Tuberculosis and Hepatitis B, necessary measures will be taken. 

Final opinion  

  • At the end of the visit, a doctor will share an opinion about your child's health. 

  • If needed, other consultative or diagnostic procedures might be scheduled (e.g. ultrasound examination of the hips)  

  • You will be informed when to come for the next check-up 

After the visit  

  • Write down the new information and recommendations you will receive during the visit. From the multiple information and impressions, key points are easily forgotten. 

Remember that a routine health check- up is an opportunity to check the growth, development and health of your child, but also an opportunity to get recommendations for further support for his progress. Don't miss this opportunity!