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A Checklist for Your Kid’s Health
What are the questions you should be asking yourself when it comes to your child’s health? These important considerations should be your priority to maintain a happy, healthy child.
Annual Physical from Birth to Adolescence
This usually involves looking at growth parameters such as weight, height and blood pressure and then evaluating various systems like the ears, nose and throat, teeth, chest, heart, abdomen, skin and neurological system.
The annual physical also helps parents keep track of vaccines that need to be administered at specific schedules. You might also consider adding age-apt blood testing to check for organ issues or vitamin deficiencies.
There are health insurance plans that cover annual physical exams for kids.
Allergy Tests
Allergies should be a priority for parents. The best way to avoid anaphylactic attacks is to detect allergies at an early age. Tests can be done as early as 6 months but best to have your pediatrician recommend timings of these tests to ensure safe testing.
Vaccines
It’s ideal for expat families to have mandatory vaccines done before they leave their country. Hong Kong is well equipped with all the vaccines required for kids but if you’re moving to other Asian countries that may not have all the resources to provide mandatory vaccines, then we recommend having a checklist of all the shots that need to be administered to inquire about availability.
The decision of which diseases to be included depends partly on the prevalence, or how common, a particular disease is in that locality,” he says. In Hong Kong, as recommended by the Department of Health, children from birth to 11 years of age should receive vaccinations against 10 diseases.
Sleeping Habits
A recent study showed that lack of sleep (below 11 hours) increases your child’s risk of obesity, as the likelihood of a child becoming overweight lowered by 8.9% for each additional hour of sleep they get. Poor sleep can interfere with a child’s school performance, ability to focus and behaviour and can cause or mistakenly be diagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder.
Lack of sleep is just due to getting off to sleep too late and erratic sleep habits. Enforce early bedtimes and ban TV, mobiles and computers in bedrooms at night. Instead encourage a wind-down period with story time or light music.
