Ensure wellness for your children: get a FHI health check done

Will a health checkup help you in keeping your kids healthy?
Indian children get regular check-up by medical personnel till they are receiving their vaccines, which is up till two years of age, after which a health check up is rarely part of considerations in our care for kids and they even formal growth monitoring is not done, unless the child is sick and land up at a doctor’s clinic.
Once they start going to school, we feel reassured by the limited school health evaluation which they get, consisting often of height, weight, eye and dental check-up.
Indian children have double burden of health risk, on one hand is childhood malnutrition, which leads to growth impairment and nutritional deficiencies and on the other hand childhood obesity and its health risks are also increasing, especially in well to do families, these include childhood prediabetes, deranged lipid profile, high blood pressure etc.
Research has started to show that the beginning of lifestyle risks happens in childhood and health agencies have started to stress on regular health checkup for children
Another important thing to keep track of is, the developmental milestones; a delay in detecting them can lead to impairment of child’s potential for life
Therefore Indian parents should ensure that their child’s health is periodically monitored beyond dental and eye check up done at school
Below is the comprehensive list of health checks for children
Test/assessment | First time when it should be done and frequency of follow-up | ||
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Weight and height | Birth to 3 years of age :At immunization visits (6,10,14 weeks, six months, nine months and 15-18 months) and six monthly thereafter
No more frequently than a fortnight in children less than six months of age and once a month in older children 4th to 18th year: at least six monthly |
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BMI | Calculated annually from 4th year onwards | ||
Hearing | At birth | ||
Vision | At 3 years of age | ||
Developmental assessment | At nine months, 18 months and 30 months of age, including screening for autism at 18-24 months of age, discuss with your doctor | ||
Oral health | At 30 months of age and half yearly or yearly thereafter | ||
Blood pressure | From 3 years of age, annually | ||
Urine routine and microscopy | From 3-5 years, annually | ||
Hemoglobin |
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HbA1c |
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Lipid profile (Total, LDL, HDL cholesterol and Triglycerides) | To be performed at 9-11 years or older age , especially if the child has one or more of following risk factors
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Vitamin D |
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Vitamin B12 |
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CHECK OUT: Fod FHI references for children’s health