Your child should have her height, weight and head circumference measured at each well child visit. These results will be recorded on a growth chart for the physician and your inspection. This will enable our doctors to pick up any abnormalities in your child’s growth as early as possible. In addition to this, her developmental milestones, dietary habits, immunization status, sleep pattern and physical characteristics will be assessed at each routine checkup.

Our clinic has adopted a computerized checklist called Ages and Stages to track development milestones in young children.  We will help you get on-line to complete the Ages and Stages check lists beginning at the nine month visit.  The company that administers the Ages and Stages checklist is called CHADIS.  We will help get your child signed up for CHADIS.  There is a small charge that we make to administer these checklists to you.  We in turn are charged for the use of this most helpful web based service.  CHADIS has many check lists and questionnaires that we also use in our practice such as our anxiety and depressions screens. It is a tool we use often.

Children grow and develop at different rates. The following developmental milestones show the ages by which most young children develop certain abilities. It is normal for a child to do some of these things later than the ages noted here. If your child fails to do many of these at the ages given, or you have questions about her development, please schedule a visit with one of our physicians to discuss this.

 

2 Months

  • Smiles, coos
  • Watches a person, follows with the eyes

4 Months

  • Laughs out loud
  • Lifts head and chest when on stomach, grasps objects

6 Months

  • Babbles, turns to sound
  • Rolls over, supports head well when sitting

9 Months

  • Responds to name, plays peek-a-boo
  • Sits alone, crawls, pulls self up to standing

1 Year

  • Waves bye-bye, says mama or dada
  • Walks when holding on, picks up small objects with thumb and first finger

18 Months

  • Says 3 words other than mama or dada, scribbles
  • Walks alone, feeds self using spoon

2 Years

  • Puts 2 words together, refers to self by name
  • Runs well, walks up stairs by self

3 Years

  • Knows age, helps in buttoning clothing, washes and dries hands
  • Throws ball overhand, rides tricycle

4 Years

  • Knows first and last name, tells a story, counts 4 objects
  • Balances on one foot, uses children’s scissors

5 Years

  • Names 4 colors, counts 10 objects
  • Hops on one foot, dresses self

For more information on growth and development go to http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html.  This is a very good website for more in depth developmental milestone information and when you should worry about development milestones which are late in coming.

Another good website for development milestones is www.kidsgrowth.com.  There are a lot of resources on this website including developmental milestones and growth charts for kids of different ages and conditions.

Lastly Ages and Stages from the American Academy of Pediatrics is a good source of information for developmental milestones.