Hang on tight, Lorenzo and family! You have lots of big adventures ahead! Celebrating the fifth birthday is a pivotal time in a child's development. The five year old well visit is also called the "kindergarten visit." While some children may not attend kindergarten for another year, this visit will still include developmental exams, labs, and immunizations.
Labs
Hemoglobin & Hematocrit A quick finger poke will check for iron deficiency anemia by measuring your child’s hemoglobin.
Urinalysis Urine provides much information about the child’s well being. An urinalysis involves checking the appearance, concentration and content of urine. Abnormal results may point to a disease or illness, such as kidney disease, urinary tract infection or diabetes.
Pure Tone Hearing
Your nurse will use a device similar to this that emits sounds across the speech spectrum (500-4000 Hz) to check the child’s hearing. Each ear is assessed individually. Cooperation by the patient varies. :)
Visual Acuity
Visual acuity is assessed using a shapes chart. The child will be asked to stand 10 feet from the chart and “read” the lines. Vision is measured for right, left, and both eyes.
Immunizations
Most children are due for booster vaccines at five years old. We combine these into two injections:
DTaP-IPV This is diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio vaccines. The child will have had previous doses at 2, 4, 6, and 15 months, also as combination vaccines.
MMR-Varicella This is measles, mumps, and rubella and varicella (chicken pox). At one year old, children typically receive these as two separate vaccines (MMR and Varicella).
- Seasonal influenza Children 6 months and older may get a flu vaccine if appropriate age and season. If this is the first year your child received the flu vaccine, he/she will need a second one in 1 month. The seasonal flu vaccine covers four strains of the flu predicted to be circulated each year. All of our injections are preservative free. Children 2 years and up may also get the nasal flu vaccine, FluMist, if available and appropriate.
Patient Portal/ Surveys
As of September 1, 2020, Summit Medical Group transitioned to a new electronic health record and therefore a new patient portal. Your account information will need to be reestablished. If you as the parent/guardian see a Summit Medical Group provider, your patient portal will be linked to your children. If you have not already set up your new account, please call the office. Once your child is over the age of 13 they may wish to have their own patient portal account. Your new patient portal account has many interactive features including self-check in which will allow you to update information prior to your appointment and avoid excessive paperwork. You will be able to view upcoming appointments, outstanding bills, care summaries and send us secure healthcare messages! For more information about the new patient portal and online features, please see our website www.shultspediatrics.com. Thank you for your patience during this transition.
We also utilize a program called CHADIS. If you are a returning patient you may recall completing “surveys” that were linked to your patient portal account. This is the same program but runs independently from your new patient portal account. You will receive an email invitation from CHADIS to set up your account for your children and complete the needed questionnaires. The invitation email will allow you to register your account to receive reminders should you wish in the form of email or text alerts. When screeners have been assigned to your child by their provider you will receive an email/text from CHADIS reminding you to complete them prior to arriving for your appointment. Make sure to click the button “Send I’m Done” so that the answers can be loaded into your child’s chart and reviewed during their appointment.
Ages & Stages, 60 months
The Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) is a developmental screening tool used to assess your child’s development periodically through 5 years old. The parent completes the age specific questionnaire before the visit to help the pediatrician gauge the child’s development in five domains: Communication, Fine Motor, Gross Motor, Personal-Social and Problem-solving. Please, allow 15-20 minutes to complete the survey. It is helpful to have your child with you when completing to better answer some of the questions.
If your child has not mastered all the skills in the survey (and most have not), don’t worry. The survey is designed to check for a range of development.