Well-baby visits? How do you do your own?

[atpeace]

We don't have a family doctor, which is a big problem in our city where there are simply not enough doctors (no doctors taking new patients, and we just moved here before DS was born). Since we've stopped seeing our midwives 6 weeks postpartum, we haven't taken DS to a doctor for any well baby checkups.

I'm wondering if these are really necessary, and worth the hours of waiting at a walk-in clinic, or if we can do a modified well-baby visit ourselves. I mean, I know people here do their own prenatal care (for various reasons), so I'm wondering if there are guidelines that apply to babies. Can anyone tell me what they look for (i.e. weight, milestones?)? I've been weighing DS every few weeks on an infant scale at a children's centre I go to, and plotting it on a "breastfed-only" baby growth chart I found on kellymom.com. What else should I be checking?

Thanks!

[LeaPea]

Our doctor really only checks weight, height, and head circumference. Then we talk about any concerns. We are delaying vaccinations, but those are done then if you choose. So far, they seem like a waste of time , but I do like knowing how my baby is growing since we don't have a scale at home.

[cristeen]

My guy has had precisely 1 WBV, and that was to become established as a patient. He's been back 2 or 3 times since, for same day appts when there was a problem. We were in today for a suspected UTI, and the doc commented that he's due for a WBV and asked if i wanted to schedule it. We don't vax (which is in our chart), so when i told her that it comes out of my pocket, she completely understood and didnt pressure me at all.

If you dont have questions, have a way to weigh, and arent concerned w vax, i dont see the point.

ETA - forgot to mention that my guy turns 1 this week.

[texmati]

I'd also see if I could find someway to track development. I know the cdc has some charts you can use to see if your baby is way off normal.

[Truckerdoo]

Personally I would find a way to check iron and Vit D levels at home.

[akind1]

We have a home scale. Every month on his "monthday" I weigh and measure him, both length and head circumfrence. I was charting this by hand on the printouts we got at his last WBV at 4 months (we haven't purposefully neglected to go; they never scheduled another and neither have we. We aren't vaxing either), but I recently got a babytracker app on my iPhone that used the WHO charts, and I like it for the most part.

As far as milestones, the app has that part in it too, but I honestly don't remember when exactly he started doing what. I can only tell you what he is capable of doing today, and about how long he has been able to that. (crawling for example, he has been doing a month to 6 weeks. I think. but that isn't really a milestone. He started pulling up on things at about the same time, and that is a milestone) there are lots of resources online to use as guidelines for milestones.

I would look for WHO charts, they are better if your baby is breastfed.

[MJB]

I don't feel they are generally necessary if you are no vaxing. I do think it's important to go in at 9 or 12 mos. to have your baby's iron and lead levels tested.
I pretty much followed the standard schedule with my first and did fewer with my second and (now) third. My 2nd and 3rd were both born unassisted; we went in for a well-baby around 2 weeks with both of them. My 2nd had tongue-tie so we went in several more times in his first 2 mos; my daughter is doing great so we just went in for her first visit (2 mo) since the 2 week. We'll probably wait until 6 mos. to go back, then do 9 and 12 mos., then every year unless I have a specific concern or we decide to start her vaccines (I just started vaxing my sons this year and am not sure what age we'll start with Edie).

[memz]

Originally Posted by akind1

I recently got a babytracker app on my iPhone that used the WHO charts, and I like it for the most part.

Curious...what is the name of the app??

[SilverFish]

we had the same problem initially. you may find that it is easier than you think to get a dr for your infant... drs tend to prioritize young children and babies, at least that was my experience in montreal. you could look up pediatricians in the yellow pages, call the health info hotline, ask your midwives for a referal.

anyway, after our last midwife appointment, we didn't see anyone else until 6 mos. partly because that was when we finally found a ped, partly because i hadn't decided about vaxes, and partly because i didn't really see a need. i do think that it is important for a health professional to take a look at a baby at least a couple times in the first year though. if all you can find is a walk-in clinic, i'd definitely suck it up and deal with the all day wait at least at 6 and 12 mos. weight, length and head circumference are the major growth trajectories, milestones are easy enough to find online too.

[HonkyTonka]

My doc checks weight, height, head circumference as well as the soft spots, the hips and her eyes.

With the soft spot, he was looking for signs of encephalitis (bulging is a bad sign). Last time he checked her hips he said, "oh yeah, these are solid hips" so I guess he was making sure they were developing properly. And for her eyes, he checked with the light, noted that they were nice and clear, and then put a hand over one eye and made the other eye look in one direction, then removed his hand to make sure that the second eye was also looking in the same direction - if they weren't both looking in the same direction than that would be cause for concern.

HTH

[Jenica]

In addition to weight, length, head circumference, my Dr. also checks that the soft spots are closing up, that DD grip is good, checks ears and throat for redness, and listens to heart and lungs. He also asks about her feeding patterns. We are selectively/delayed vaccinating so he's going to start checking titers to see if DD will even need the boosters.

[ErinYay]

Originally Posted by Truckerdoo

Personally I would find a way to check iron and Vit D levels at home.

We do WBVs and haven't had draws for iron or vit D- do they do those at a year? (We've done 48 hr (as a condition of early hospital release), 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, and 9 months.) I did request a lead draw at her 6 month due to moving into an 80-year-old house and doing some light reno, but they haven't wanted to do any other bloodwork.

[AllyRae]

In addition to the things mentioned in the posts above, our ped also palpates the belly to feel for...oh heck, I don't know. I'm not a doctor and I'm not about to guess. But he feels her belly, does a quick diaper check to look for hernias (doesn't check the private bits...just opens up the diaper and looks just below the belly button, and also checks for rashes). He checks her muscle tone/strength, heart rate, pulse, breathing rate, lungs, checks for heart murmers, feels for enlarged lymph nodes, and does some social skills "checks" (making eye contact, etc.)

[sarahr]

Originally Posted by AllyRae

In addition to the things mentioned in the posts above, our ped also palpates the belly to feel for...oh heck, I don't know. I'm not a doctor and I'm not about to guess. But he feels her belly, does a quick diaper check to look for hernias (doesn't check the private bits...just opens up the diaper and looks just below the belly button, and also checks for rashes). He checks her muscle tone/strength, heart rate, pulse, breathing rate, lungs, checks for heart murmers, feels for enlarged lymph nodes, and does some social skills "checks" (making eye contact, etc.)

That describes our WBVs too. Since they haven't found anything, it sometimes feels like a waste of time, but if the doctor DID find something, I'd be very happy to have gone. There are lots of issues that I wouldn't be able to catch or are easier to treat before they become symptomatic. After all, it's called preventative care for a reason.

[paxye]

We don't do WBV...

I did them with my first for the first year and then stopped... My 2nd and 3rd didn't have any WBV, but have seen a ped. in the past when they needed it.. #4 is almost 8 months and hasn't seen anyone yet...

[paxye]

oh.. and I don't check anything anymore...

I see that she is growing and gaining weight, is changing and developing... I am confident that if something is wrong I will feel it and if I have a feeling I don't have any qualms about getting it checked out..

[atpeace]

Thanks, everyone! Great info. I think we'll end up doing a combo of what everyone suggested: perhaps go to one or two at the walk-in clinic, and the do the rest ourselves (plot weight, look at developmental assessment tools online, etc). Thanks again!

[redvlagrl]

We do WBVs and I really like them.

Do you get the handouts from TykeTalk and Nipissing scale? They send them out to us. This lists a lot of the milestone stuff they look for.

Though I would still do them even if not vaxxing because they do look for things that you might not know about (like how to palpate the tummy etc).

[ErinYay]

Originally Posted by redvlagrl

We do WBVs and I really like them.

I like them a lot, too.

Vivi likes to show off, I like to brag about her, and it suits our purposes well!

(We selectively & delayed-edly vac, with no murmurs at all from our ped or NP.)

[redvlagrl]

i forgot to say that we selectively vax, but do all the important (in our opinion) ones on schedule. Dr was fine with our choices to not do some of them.

For me it's really not the weight and development stuff that's important but the stuff I don't know how to do. We are not big Dr fans or anything, BUT they do know more about some things than us, so we trust her judgement. For instance at DS's 2 mth checkup I mentioned that he was projectile vomitting about 3 cups of liquid (BM) at a time. I hadn't gone earlier because he was gaingin VERy well. She palpated his tummy and sent us for an ultrasound to be on the safe side. If I hadn't been going to the WBV I probably wouldn't have bothered to go especially for that because eh was gaining so well.