Make room in the busy schedule of your elementary age child for an annual well-child visit. Maintaining healthy habits, like preventive health exams, will positively impact the health of a child for life.
Preventive visits will cover:
- Obesity screening and counseling
- Vision
- Hearing
- Cholesterol
- Blood pressure
- Early puberty
- Behavioral assessment
- Developmental surveillance
- Sexual maturity rating (at age 10)
- Scoliosis (females at age 10)
- Immunization Vaccines
The provider may talk to you about:
- Are you ready for school?: Teacher-parent communication, bullying, afterschool care, friendships, and handling disappointment and fear
- Is everything going ok at home?: Family time, routines, temper problems and socialization.
- Healthy eating and activity: Well balanced diet, eating fruits and vegetables and 60 minutes of exercise a day
- Safety: Crossing the street, using a booster seat, swimming, fire drills and carbon monoxide, child sexual abuse prevention and firearms.
- Growing and Changing: Readiness for middle school, puberty onset, personal hygiene, growth spurts, loss of baby fat, gaining muscle and menstruation and ejaculation (9-12 year olds)
Sources
American Academy of Pediatrics. Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care, https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/periodicity_schedule.pdf.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. From Coverage to Care, go.cms.gov/c2c