Regular child’s health check-up is an important procedure which provides the accurate information about the child’s health state and development and allows determining possible diseases on early stages. Child’s health checkup should be performed in a pediatric clinic by a pediatrician and a nurse. Normally, parents should bring their child to a clinic in two, four, six, nine, and twelve months for checkups. During health checking, it is essential to interview parents about a baby’s state and feeding procedure, perform the physical examination, determine developmental characteristics, and provide all required immunizations, according to a schedule.
Parents’ Interview and Physical Examination
Before the child’s examination, it is important to get the information about one’s health state, feeding procedure, and stool. At the first visit, a nurse should obtain a detailed birth history. At next visits, parents should be asked about all child’s illnesses since the previous visit. To evaluate the baby’s development, several tools might be used. Except for the examination, it is important to ask parents about child’s activities and behavior and compare obtained data with the developmental standards.
A nurse should estimate child’s growth, using standard growth charts. Parents should be asked about a child’s diet, type of feeding (breastfeeding or a formula) and its frequency, additional drinks and solid food. Besides, it is important to determine the social circumstances of a child’s life: who lives with a baby and what possible environmental risks he or she faces. After a parents’ interview, a physical examination should be provided. During the examination, weight, length, head circumference, and vital signs should be measured (Bickley and Szilagyi, 2012).
Developmental Estimation
For the two-month child’s developmental evaluation, movement abilities, cognition and social growth should be estimated (Burns et al., 2012). For evaluation of Asia’s state, the Parents’ Evaluation Developmental Status tool is generally used. It is a questionnaire that parents could complete in a waiting room before the appointment. This tool demonstrates the high reliability and predictive validity (“Developmental monitoring and screening,” 2017). Based on it, Asia’s abilities to lift her head and chest, move her eyes, react to sounds, smile in response, and recognize her mother were checked. A girl recognized her parents, smiled in response to them, and made cooing noises. She was able to lift her head and chest but could not roll over yet. It could be claimed that Asia was developed normally for her age.
Immunization Procedures
Immunization is a controversial question. Despite its benefits for diseases preventing, a lot of parents have particular doubts about its necessity and safety. It is important to discuss with parents the procedure of immunization. A nurse should provide the accurate information about the vaccination safety and diseases which could be prevented by it. A nurse should also provide parents with reliable sources of the immunization information. It is important to explain the whole procedure of vaccination and its stages. Parents should understand that the procedure would be effective only if a baby get all the doses of vaccines (“Responding to parents,” 2016).
At two-month age, Asia should be given her first doses of diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP (A)), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib (D)), inactivated poliovirus (IPV (E)), pneumococcal conjugate (PCV13 (F)), and rotavirus (RtaV (G)) vaccines. Besides, she should be given her second dose of hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine (“Immunization schedule,” 2017).
Conclusion
All the required checkup procedures were provided for Asia. Needed information was obtained from Asia’s mother and during the physical examination. A girl was normally physically and mentally developed. No pathological conditions were determined during health check-up. Asia was given with all the vaccinations, according to the immunization schedule. Asia’s mother got the information about the feeding procedure, child’s safety, and immunization scheme. Next check-up procedure should be performed when Asia would be four months old.
References
Bickley, L., & Szilagyi, P. G. (2012). Bates’ guide to physical examination and history-taking (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Burns, C. E., Dunn, A. M., Brady, M. A., Starr, N. B., Blosser, C. G., & Garzon, D. L. (2012). Pediatric primary care. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders.
Developmental monitoring and screening for health professionals. (2017). Web.
Immunization schedule. (2017). Web.
Responding to parents. (2016). Web.