The Importance of Well Child Check-Ups
At Briarcliff Pediatrics, board certified pediatricians Dr. Raymond Deeb and Dr. Ashley Brown have more than twenty-five years of experience providing the highest quality health care to children ranging from newborns to teenagers up to eighteen years of age. While we routinely provide immediate pediatric medical care for a wide variety of injuries and ailments, one of the most important things that we do is conduct well child check-ups. Some parents might ask why their child would need to visit a pediatrician if they aren’t sick. What few may realize is that regularly scheduled well child check-ups allow us to track your child’s growth and development, monitor any abnormalities, and catch any emerging issues before they become serious concerns.
Childhood is a time of change. From infancy through adolescence and puberty, cells are rapidly dividing to generate new tissue, new neural pathways are forming in the brain, and the entire body is developing faster than at any other time. All of this change happening in such a relatively short span of time means that there are many opportunities for something to go wrong. Fortunately, if a well child check-up can catch a problem early, we usually have a chance to treat it before it can seriously impact your child’s development or cause permanent difficulties. A typical well child visit at Briarcliff Pediatrics begins with a thorough physical examination, including a screening for emerging vision problems. We closely monitor your child’s growth and physical development by measuring height, weight, and head circumference and administer childhood immunizations to protect against diseases, in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines. Additionally, Dr. Deeb and Dr. Brown like to provide special educational sessions to new parents about child growth and development, potential feeding issues, and even advice on how to prevent accidents and injuries. As your child grows into a teen, we expand the scope of those sessions to offer guidance on self-image, anxiety, school performance, driver safety, internet use, and more.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has developed a complete set of guidelines for well-child care that our Briarcliff Pediatrics providers follow. They recommend well child visits starting when the child is two to five days old, and recurring six times during their first year. The time between these visits then gradually increases until the child begins undergoing regular annual check-ups at the age of three. Dr. Deeb or Dr. Brown will go over the entire well child visit schedule with you in detail during your first appointment and will make any changes that may be necessary in order to accommodate your child’s individual health care requirements. We understand that every child is unique and our goal is to work with each parent to determine a schedule for well child check-ups that fits you and your child’s needs.
Regular well child check-ups are vitally important to keeping your child in good health, but they are only one of the many things that we do at Briarcliff Pediatrics. If you are interested in learning more about us, you are welcome to come in for a complimentary meet and greet so that you can talk in person with Dr. Deeb or Dr. Brown and get a tour of our newly renovated office. Just contact Briarcliff Pediatrics to schedule an appointment. Don’t forget to follow us on social media to get up to date health tips and the latest news in children’s health care.
