The Well Child Plan

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

08 Aug 2006 03:30 PM

A recent article in USA Today discussed revisiting the Well Child plan. For those not familiar with the well child plan, these are the visits pediatricians plan to meet with infants and toddlers in order to assess that their development is on track.

They do this by weighing, measuring and discussing how the infant and toddler is doing in a variety of areas is a way for pediatricians to catch everything from speech delays to mental development issues long before they become a problem.

The issue that pediatricians are revisiting is the fact that Well Child visits are supposed to last no longer than 15 minutes, but most parents have more questions than 15 minutes allows and most pediatricians are interested in seeing to the needs of those parents.

In July, the American Academy of Pediatrics published the latest policy for the Well Child plan. The plan calls specifically for pediatricians to:

• Ask parents questions about their children's development and look for signs of trouble at every well-child visit up to age 3
• Use formal, proven developmental screening tests at 9 months, 18 months and again at 24 and/or 30 months
• Autism screenings for all children at 18 months
• Additional screening to be offered ay time the doctor or parent is concerned about an issue
• Children, who fail screening tests, are to be referred to early-intervention programs and to specialists who will be able to evaluate the child fully for developmental and medical issues

The changes to the Well Child plan include the specific call for autism screening as well as the follow-up checking for issues that may concern the doctor, the parent or both. Ultimately, the American Academy of Pediatrics is looking to mix both formal screening and prompt responses to parental concerns in an effort to catch all developmental and medical issues early - the earlier the better - to benefit the child.

Does your pediatrician provide you with plenty of time at your well child visits?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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Valorie Delp (49340) 08 Aug 2006 04:51 PM

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my pediatrician and I rue the day that she will retire. She is fantastic and answers everything--even questions about my other kids that she's not seeing that day. I do try to be respectful of her time though. I'm not sure how I feel about screenings at 18mos and ECI though to be honest. It is probably a good thing--but we had a horrible experience with EI. I supposed if you need EI, it is much better though.