All is Well Wednesday Week 15: The School Age (6-11 Years Old) Visits

Once your child enters school, it is still important to keep yearly well visits. We will continue to check growth and development, discuss concerns specific to the child, and build our relationship with the entire family. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), benefits of regular well visits include: 

• Prevention. Your child gets scheduled immunizations to prevent illness. You also can ask your pediatrician about nutrition and safety in the home and at school.

• Tracking growth and development. See how much your child has grown in the time since your last visit, and talk with your doctor about your child’s development. You can discuss your child’s milestones, social behaviors and learning.

• Raising concerns. Make a list of topics you want to talk about with your child’s pediatrician such development, behavior, sleep, eating or relations with other family members. Present your top three to five questions or concerns to the pediatrician at the start of the visit.

• Team approach. Regular visits create strong, trustworthy relationships among pediatrician, parent and child. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports well-child visits as a way for pediatricians and parents to serve the needs of children. This team approach helps develop optimal physical, mental and social health of a child.

Labs 

• Hemoglobin & Hematocrit At 7, 9, 11 years visits, 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 will also be performed at the odd year visits and 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.

• Lipid Panel & Glucose  At nine years old, we will also collect blood to run a lipid (cholesterol) panel and glucose. 

• 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. This will be done at even year visits (6, 8, and 10 years). 

• Visual Acuity 

Vision is also assessed yearly using the Snellen eye chart as Dr. Bullen demonstrates here.

Immunizations

After the five years old exam, your child is granted a temporary reprieve from vaccinations. They are usually quite excited about this. They will still need a yearly flu vaccine, though. 

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

Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17) The PSC-17 is a brief mental health survey used by the pediatrician to identify areas of concern. This will be administered yearly. 

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. 

Next routine well visit:  Yearly 

As always, take care and remember we are here if you need us!