Healthy child check-ups are doctor visits to monitor growth and development without waiting for the child to become sick. During these examinations, pediatricians monitor the growth and development of children with charts and tests showing community standards, identify and treat any delays and abnormalities, if any, and advise parents on many issues.
The most important difference that separates a child from an adult is their constant physical appearance. to grow physically and develop mentally. Delays in growth and development may be due to lack of care, genetic, metabolic or hormonal diseases. Detection and treatment of these at an early stage can lead to very different consequences for the child's future life.
Childhood is divided into stages:
0-28 days: Newborn Period
0-1 years: Infant
2-3 years: Play child
3-6 years: Preschool period
6-12 years: School age
12-20 years: Adolescence
Each of these stages contains very different physical and developmental features. Therefore, each period should be evaluated on its own. Among these periods, the period in which physical development is fastest is 0-1 years of age, that is, infancy. For this reason, children should be closely monitored, especially in the first year of life.
The first 28 days of age zero-1 are separated from other months for many reasons and called the neonatal period. This month is a challenging process for both parents and baby. The baby who grows in the womb for nine months meets the world for the first time in this month. While it is nourished and oxygenated by the mother's blood, it is replaced by the lungs after birth, and even the blood circulation changes with birth. Many problems may arise during the newborn period, from turban to feeding problems to umbilical bleeding. On the one hand, parents are happy to hold their new baby in their arms, and on the other hand, they have many concerns about the health and care of the baby. That's why I think the ideal pediatrician visit should be before the baby is born. Before your relatives and friends get involved and confuse you with different suggestions, and before you have any postpartum pain or emotional turmoil, you should learn information about breastfeeding and postpartum care beforehand, and how to help yourself during and after birth. It can make it an enjoyable process. This may be an opportunity to find a reliable and contactable doctor with whom you will later go for healthy child follow-ups.
If possible, examinations in the neonatal period should be at birth, in the first 3 days after birth, in the first week, on the 15th day and in the 1st month. During these examinations, the baby's height, weight and head circumference should be measured, the mother's breastfeeding should be observed and breastfeeding education should be given. During the examination, congenital anomalies, congenital cataracts, hypothyroidism, and hearing tests should be screened. The baby should be checked for jaundice, umbilical bleeding and inflammation, or vomiting. The reason for this should be investigated in babies who do not gain sufficient weight.
Growth involves the child growing in mass, and development involves the baby making movements appropriate to its month (such as holding its head, sitting, walking, talking). In evaluating growth, growth charts prepared by taking the measurements of thousands of Turkish children, the height of the mother and father, and the child's previous measurements are used. If these deviate from normal, the reason should be investigated. For example, delayed height growth may be due to nutritional deficiency or may be due to many diseases such as growth hormone deficiency, hypothyroidism, metabolic diseases, and recurrent infections. Rapid growth in head circumference may be due to a disease we call hydrocephalus, and timely correction of this by surgery will save the child from suffering sequelae in the future. It is appropriate to monitor development with tests such as the Denver development test.
In addition to growth and development follow-up, follow-ups in the first year should also include nutrition, sleep patterns, care, protection from accidents, communication with the child, protection from diseases, administration and follow-up of vaccines. In addition to the ministry of health, rotavirus (diarrhea) and meningitis vaccines are administered privately. Vaccinations should be followed up meticulously. Unfortunately, in recent years, attitudes such as being against some vaccines have begun to develop in our society, and unfortunately, even famous people who joined this trend have set the wrong example. The most beneficial part of medicine is preventive medicine. Preventing a disease from occurring is much cheaper and more harmless than treating the disease. Boil clean water Achieving vaccines has extended the average human lifespan by 30 years, and the discovery of vaccines has extended the average human life by 12 years. Thanks to vaccination programs, diseases such as smallpox, polio, and measles, which caused many losses in human history, have become history, and even diseases such as mumps and chickenpox, which we previously considered normal for children to have, are now rare. Not vaccinating children, or recommending that they not be vaccinated, means knowingly putting them at great risk.
Healthy child follow-ups, which are carried out monthly in the first 6 months, should be continued every 2-3 months in the second six months. From the age of 1 until the age of 2, it is useful to examine them at least twice a year. After the age of 2, it is sufficient to check it once a year until the end of adolescence. Adolescence is a period when growth and development accelerate again and great developments occur in a person's body and soul due to hormonal changes. During this period, issues such as growth, pubertal changes, protection against accidents, school problems, relationships with parents, preventing substance use, development of sexual identity, relationships with friends and the opposite sex should be emphasized, questions should be determined and necessary guidance should be given.
Unfortunately, in our current healthy system, since the patient density is on sick children, the necessary attention cannot be paid to healthy child checks during insufficient outpatient clinic times. Families are trying to close this gap with the information they get from their elders, friends and the internet. When obtaining information from the internet, one should be sure about the reliability of the information and use scientific sites. Otherwise, sites where people share their personal opinions may cause unnecessary and irreversible mistakes to be made.
To a beautiful future with healthy parents and healthy children..
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