Well baby care

• Find a health care provider for your baby.
• Take your baby for regular checkups, even if he’s not sick.
• Keep baby healthy by making sure she gets her vaccinations.

Your baby’s awfully cute! Now let’s make sure he’s healthy, too. If you don’t already have one, find a health care provider for your baby. This could be a pediatrician, a family physician or another kind of health care provider. Try to decide on and meet with a provider before your baby is born. Make sure you feel comfortable talking to him or her. Also make sure their office is in a place that you can get to easily.

During your baby’s first year, he’ll see her health care provider regularly for well baby visits. This is the medical care you get for your baby when he’s not sick. His checkups let the health care provider make sure your baby is  growing and developingcorrectly. In the first year, your baby should get a checkup at:

• 2 weeks
• 1, 2, 4, 6 and 9 months
• 1 year

Take your baby for these checkups even if he’s doing great and isn’t sick.

Your baby gets vaccinations (immunizations) as part of well baby care. Vaccinations protect your baby from serious childhood diseases, like polio, chickenpox, mumps and the flu. Your baby should get vaccinations and boosters regularly, all the way through age 18.

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