What Happens During A Routine Physical For Children?

What Happens During A Routine Physical For Children?
By Juanita Swindell
Taking your child for regular routine physicals is crucial, especially during those first few years. These routine physicals, also known as well-child visits, allow your child's pediatrician to ensure that your child's growth and development are happening as expected and that there is no cause for concern.
So many times parents worry that their kids do not start walking or talking at around the same time as most other children. Sometimes, this is really no cause for concern as every child starts walking and talking at different times. Sometimes, however, this developmental delay could be due to other factors. If you are worried, you can voice your fears at your child's next visit to the clinic and the pediatrician may conduct a few additional tests to eliminate any possible problems.
Another reason why routine physicals are so important is that symptoms of some health conditions are not immediately noticeable and may go undiagnosed and untreated for too long. Because a younger child's organs are not yet fully developed they are particularly vulnerable. At a well-child visit, the pediatrician will be able to identify the early symptoms and start treatment immediately so that the disease does not progress any further.
Here's what the doctor will do at your child's next pediatric routine physical.
Measure Vital Signs
The first thing that the pediatrician will do is to check that all vital organs are functioning normally and that there are no aberrations. They will check the pulse rate and blood pressure to detect whether there are no abnormalities related to the heart and the circulatory system.
They will also check the height and weight to determine whether your child is developing normally. Accordingly they may make some recommendations for making a few nutritional changes.
In addition, other checks will be done to ascertain the condition of the lungs.
Palpation
This involves physical touching different body parts to establish the location of the lymph nodes and determine whether they are larger or smaller than they should be. If anything unusual is noticed, they may make a note so they can continue to monitor this aspect during the next visit.
Check Your Child's Eyes, Nose And Ears
Eye, nose and ear exams are conducted at every visit as they reveal a lot to the doctor. The condition of the eyes can indicate an infection or it may indicate some other type of visual problem. In checking the nose, the pediatrician will look for sign of upper respiratory distress and also for the development of sinuses. An ear exam is done to test the hearing abilities and also to check if there is any discharge from the ear.
Lastly, the doctor will do a complete physical check to ascertain if there are any general health issues.
Regular routine physicals are an extremely important aspect of early child care. To know more about well-child visits or to make an appointment, call Pediatric Partners today. Also Check out our new Blog Post on Yearly Physicals.
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