Health Records
Your doctor will have a complete record of your children’s health, but you should keep one at home, as well. This will help when you have an emergency, when your child begins sports or goes on field trips, when you have baby-sitters staying with your children or when you need to give medication. Knowing how much your child weighs is important in giving medicine, for example. Knowing what shots your child has had will help during epidemics of illnesses like chicken pox. If you do have an emergency, it may be difficult to think clearly. Having those records nearby will eliminate your having to rely on memory under those circumstances.

Immunizations
Your child will have a vaccination schedule aimed at preventing serious diseases, including some like chickenpox, which you may have experienced as a child. Here is a general schedule for vaccinations as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Please check with your doctor for more information.

• Birth: Hepatitis B (HBV)
• One to Two Months: HBV
• Two months: Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTaP), Polio (IPV), Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB), Pneumococcus (PCV)
• Four months: DTaP, IPV, HiB, PCV
• Six months: DTaP, IPV, HiB, PCV
• Six-24 months:  Influenza (flu) if during fall-winter seasons
• Nine months:  HBV
• Twelve months: Varicella (chickenpox), Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)
• Fifteen-eighteen  months: DTaP, HiB, PCV
• Four to six years: DTaP, IPV, MMR
• Eleven to twelve years: Tetanus-diphtheria booster (Td) - and every ten years thereafter

Medications
Giving your children medicine correctly and carefully can be extremely important. Not only is it dangerous to give a child too much of a medicine, but it may also be ineffective. It is particularly important that you follow instructions in giving medicines like antibiotics, because they must work consistently over a set period of time to kill off germs such as bacteria. Often medicines like an antibiotic will be prescribed multiple times a day for a week or more. Skipping doses or just stopping the medicine when a child’s symptoms go away may do more harm than good. A child may have to start all over on the medicine or may develop bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotics. Carefully listen to and read instructions about medicines because they may have special requirements, like taking them on an empty stomach or a full stomach or with water. Some medicines even react to certain foods. Side effects can even be a problem with children. Certain cough syrups can make them lethargic or even hyper. Consult your doctor or pharmacist if you have any questions or problems. And remember that your child’s size and age are both important in giving doses of medicine.

Visiting The Doctor
Your child’s first visit to the doctor probably came before you even left the hospital. Getting to know your doctor and nurses can be a great experience for your children. Encourage your child to understand the importance of these visits and what a positive impact regular medical care can have on your child. You and your doctor are there to help prevent illness, and even though experiences like shots may be negative for a child, help them understand the good that they do in the long run. Follow the immunization schedule (as shown above and worked out with your doctor) to help head off major diseases. Your doctor also will keep track of your child’s growth rate and will do regular testing on your child for vision, hearing and speech.

Visiting The Dentist
Even adults are afraid of the dentist sometimes, but this can be a rewarding experience for your child. Most children visit the dentist for the first time around age three. Find a dentist that is child friendly and that will make visits a lot more fun for the child. You should take your children once a year or as often as your dentist feels is necessary. Help your child follow through with regular brushing and flossing to prevent tooth decay or other problems.

Other Doctors
Your child’s needs to see other doctors may depend on any special needs, such as vision problems, injuries, chronic illnesses or other needs. Your family doctor or pediatrician can help you find the appropriate physician.

Smoking
Your children will hear about the dangers of smoking at school and in the media, but this is an important message for you to reinforce at home. Studies are showing far greater dangers from smoking that include harm to children even before they are born. Secondhand smoke has been shown to impact children and even cause allergies and other illnesses. It is the leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States and the major cause of lung cancer. Most people start to smoke before age 20. Very few start as mature adults. This means it is very important to prevent your children from ever beginning the habit. Remind them that the major components of tobacco smoke are tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. Tar becomes a sticky substance in the lungs. Nicotine is addictive and affects the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Carbon monoxide cuts down the amount of oxygen that red blood cells can carry through the body.