Childhood health checks: what to expect from birth onward

What are childhood health checks, and where do they happen?

Childhood health checks are the routine screens, exams and vaccines offered from birth, and most happen at regular well-child visits rather than separate appointments. Timings on this page follow US guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures schedule and the CDC. In the UK you are more likely to hear about a health visitor or GP, and the blood spot test is often called the heel prick test.

The first year holds the most visits, which can feel like a lot when you are short on sleep, but each has a small, specific purpose. For the wider picture of how a girl's body grows, see what changes in childhood. Feeding questions come up at almost every early visit, and breastfeeding and feeding in the first year covers them in detail.

Vaccines are where the two countries drift furthest apart: the US follows the CDC schedule, while the UK follows the UKHSA routine immunisation schedule, where the timing differs. Many families find it useful to keep their own country's schedule beside the baby's record book and tick off each visit.

Check, when, what to look for

What do health checks look for after the first birthday?

After the first birthday, the focus moves from newborn screening to how your child is growing, seeing, developing and feeling. Visits are further apart, and more of what gets noticed comes from you, because you see your child every day.

Weight and height are plotted at every well-child visit, and what matters is the line your child follows over time. A shift across percentile lines (centile lines in the UK) is a reason for a conversation, not a verdict, and the aim is steady growth and a strong, healthy body.

Developmental screening is a structured look at skills that children pick up at different speeds, and it exists to offer support early. If something you've noticed doesn't come up, it's fine to raise it yourself. Dental care starts earlier than most people expect, with fluoride varnish from the first tooth.

Wellbeing is the easiest check to overlook, because nothing on the calendar prompts it. Once school starts, teachers see a side of your daughter that you may not, which makes them useful partners. Some concerns, such as pain on peeing, don't need to wait for a scheduled visit, and a call to your pediatrician's office (your GP in the UK) is a sensible way to ask. For the years after this one, health checks in puberty picks up where this page stops, and health checks for women lays out every life stage in one place.

Which childhood checks matter most for girls?

Two checks deserve a little extra attention for girls: the newborn hip exam and watching for early signs of puberty. Neither is a reason to worry in advance; they are simply where being a girl is relevant to what the checks look for.

Bright Futures notes that hip problems are more common in girls and in breech babies. If your daughter was breech, it's worth mentioning at her early visits so it is on her record.

Puberty that starts sooner than expected is also more common in girls, and it is treatable. The ages in the table are a prompt to ask, not a diagnosis, and our page on early puberty explains what the signs look like and what happens next.

Looking further ahead, when to get the HPV vaccine is written for the years when your daughter is older.

Next steps

A good place to start is finding out which check is next for your child and adding it to your calendar. If you keep a record of visits and vaccines, bringing it along can make each appointment easier. If something on the red flag list sounds familiar, a call now is a sensible step and need not wait for the next routine visit. Take from this page whatever fits your daughter and your family, because health checks are not one size fits all.