Maintaining your child’s health and preventing illness involve regular pediatric visits. At Newport Pediatrics. Dr. Samuel Puckett, Dr. Bolling Brawley, and Dr. Jennifer Saucema conduct regular well-child visits in Newport, TN. These visits check your child’s ongoing development and signs of underlying illnesses.

Preparation Steps for Parents

Have any issues arisen regarding your child’s health since the last visit? If so, bring those issues up with the doctor. List questions and concerns so you don’t forget anything.

Make a list of:

• Injuries
• Recurring Illnesses
• Medications
• Allergy symptoms
• Changes in eating or sleep patterns
• Learning issues

If you have school health correspondence forms or vaccination records from other facilities, bring those. Make sure your insurance coverage is current, and check co-pays or office visit fees. 

Preparation Steps for Children

It is natural for children to be nervous about doctor visits, especially when needles are involved. Discuss the visit with your child and find kid-focused materials to share with them. Make playtime educational by playing “doctor” and finding reading materials or cartoons about checkups. Bring their favorite toy to the appointment so they will have something to comfort them. Talk with your child or teen about how they feel emotionally and physically.  

Standard Procedures During Pediatric Checkups

Well-child visits in Newport, TN, involve vital sign checks, weight and height measurements, and vision and hearing tests. Necessary vaccines are given during this time — children receive most vaccinations from birth through the first six years.

The doctor will check developmental milestones and note delays. Children and teens should hit various physical, mental, emotional, and verbal milestones at particular ages. For example, there should be a natural progression from cooing to babbling to speaking the first word by the end of the first year. Babies should follow people and objects with their eyes, smile, and point to show engagement with their environment. A six-month-old should be able to sit up without assistance, and a two-year-old should have an average vocabulary of about 50 words.

Doctors track your child's growth on a chart. Healthy children should be within a certain height and weight range unless there are nutritional deficiencies, obesity concerns, sleep problems causing interruption in growth hormones, etc. 

Dr. Puckett, Dr. Brawley, and Dr. Saucema at Newport Pediatrics care for your children and treat many health ailments. For regular well-child visits in Newport, TN, that your child will feel comfortable with, these are the doctors to see. To make an appointment, call us at 423-623-0653.