Healthy Children

All children need to visit a health care provider at scheduled intervals, also known as the periodicity schedule. Healthy children need these visits, as well as children with health problems. Regularly scheduled health visits assure parents that their child is growing and developing normally and provide information to parents about what to expect in their child's development. For developmental information about children birth to two years old, visit the department's Baby Your Baby website.

These visits are often called well-child exams and are important to assure on-going supervision of each child's health. In each well-child exam, the health care provider assesses the child's health and development and provides the parents and child with information and guidance appropriate to the child's age. These exams help the family and child to develop lifelong healthy habits. These exams can also find health or developmental problems early.