The checkup is on Thursday. You had a list of questions. Somewhere between the car seat, the diaper bag and the waiting room, that list quietly left the building.

This happens to nearly every parent. Jot down a few things in the days before and bring one list with you.

Below is what the visits are for, what usually happens, and what’s worth writing down.

What well-baby visits are for

Well-baby visits (or well-child visits) are the appointments you go to when nothing is wrong. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the point of these early checkups is to make sure your child is growing and developing properly.

The AAP also says regular visits help with prevention, tracking growth and development, and building a trusting relationship with your pediatrician. That last part gets overlooked. The better your doctor knows your baby, the easier it is to notice what’s unusual for them.

The visit is your time too. Sleep, feeding, a strange rash, a cough that won’t quit: all of it counts.

When the visits happen in the first year

In the US, the Bright Futures/AAP periodicity schedule lists visits at 3 to 5 days, by 1 month, and at 2, 4, 6, 9 and 12 months. Every one includes measurements, a physical exam and a chance to talk. Some visits have extra items on the schedule:

Age	Also on the schedule
3 to 5 days	A check on feeding and jaundice, within 48 to 72 hours after leaving the hospital
By 1 month	Maternal depression screening (a check on how mom is doing)
2 months	Maternal depression screening
4 months	Maternal depression screening
6 months	Maternal depression screening, oral health risk assessment
9 months	Developmental screening, oral health risk assessment
12 months	Anemia screening

Vaccines are often given at many of these visits. Recommendations can change, so ask your doctor what’s planned for the next appointment and bring any questions about it.

The schedule is a baseline. The AAP notes that additional visits may become necessary if circumstances suggest concerns, so your doctor may want to see you more often.

If you’re in the UK, the timing is a little different. The NHS offers health and development reviews shortly after birth (within 72 hours), then at 1 to 2 weeks, 6 to 8 weeks, 9 to 12 months and 2 to 2.5 years.

What the doctor usually checks

Growth

Your baby gets weighed and measured for length and head size, and the numbers go on a growth chart. For babies under 2, the CDC and AAP recommend the WHO child growth standards, which describe how children should grow, not just how they happened to grow in one place and time. The WHO standards cover weight, length, head circumference and more.

The line over time matters most. The AAP calls the growth curve across visits the most reliable way to judge whether a baby is growing normally. If one number looks low or high to you, ask about it before you start worrying.

Development

The doctor looks at reflexes, muscle tone and milestones, and asks what your baby has started doing.

The CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program has free milestone checklists for 2, 4, 6, 9 and 12 months and beyond. Milestones are things most children (75% or more) can do by a certain age. Going through the checklist the day before gives you something concrete to talk about.

It isn’t a test, and the CDC says the checklists are not a substitute for standardized developmental screening. If you’re worried, the CDC advises talking with your child’s doctor rather than waiting.

The physical exam

The doctor usually checks the soft spots on the head, eyes, ears, mouth, heart and lungs, belly, and hips, among other things.

Feeding, sleep and diapers

The AAP checkup checklists include questions about whether your baby gets breast milk, formula or both and how your baby falls asleep. The newborn checklist also has parents ask how many diapers they should be changing. This is where your notes pay off. “Uh, a normal amount?” is harder for a doctor to work with than a rough number.

What to note down before the visit

You don’t need a spreadsheet. A few days of rough notes are plenty. If your baby is a newborn, what to track in the newborn weeks explains which numbers matter. This list is easy to screenshot:

Feeds: roughly how often, how much or how long, and whether it’s breast milk, formula or both
Sleep: a typical night, naps, and anything that changed lately
Diapers: roughly how many wet and dirty per day, and anything that looked unusual
Fevers: the temperature, how you took it, and the date and time
Medicines: the name, dose and time for anything you gave, including supplements
New foods, if you’ve started solids, and any reaction you noticed (our guide on when to start solid foods covers what to note)
New skills and firsts since the last visit
Anything that changed at home, like starting daycare or a round of colds in the house
How you’re doing, honestly
Your questions, with the most important ones at the top

On medicine, writing down what you gave and when helps the doctor. The NHS also says it can help you space doses evenly and avoid giving too much.

Don’t save a fever for the checkup. The AAP says that if your baby is 3 months or younger and has a rectal temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, you should call your pediatrician immediately.

What to bring

Your notes and your list of questions
For the first visit, hospital paperwork, including discharge weight and any complications during pregnancy or birth
In the UK, your baby’s red book. The NHS suggests taking it to every visit to the baby clinic or GP
The CDC milestone checklist, if you filled one in
A spare diaper, a change of clothes and a feed, because babies pick the worst moment
Another adult, if you can. The AAP notes it’s much easier to concentrate on the conversation when you have a little help with dressing and undressing the baby

Write your questions down, and the answers too

A review in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine found that 40 to 80% of medical information provided by healthcare practitioners is forgotten immediately. The same review found that written information is remembered better. Add a sleepy parent and a crying baby and it’s easy to see how things slip.

A few habits help.

Keep one running note for questions. When something pops into your head at 3am during a feed, add it right then, because you won’t remember it by morning.

Bring your top three to five questions and raise them at the start of the visit, as the AAP suggests. Don’t wait until you’re at the door with your hand on the handle.

Write the answers next to the questions. If your hands are full of baby, ask the other adult to do it. If the doctor gives you a dose, a date or a “call us if,” get it written down before you leave.

It’s fine to ask the doctor to repeat something or slow down. They’d rather do that than have you guess later.

Next time, open the old list first. Last visit’s answers are often a good starting point for this visit’s questions.

If you’d like an app for this

Vivi Baby is an iPhone and Apple Watch baby tracker, now on the App Store. Its Checkups feature sums up sleep, feeds, diapers, growth on WHO charts, medical entries, vaccines, new teeth and firsts since the last visit (or over the last 1, 2 or 3 months). It also keeps your questions for the doctor with the answers, plus notes and photos. Your data stays in your own iCloud Drive. Checkups is part of Vivi Plus, and the pricing page has the details. Sleepy Time and the Watch feeding timers add to the log that Checkups reads from.

A notes app or a pen works too. What matters is walking in with the list.

Sources

Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care (Periodicity Schedule) - Bright Futures/American Academy of Pediatrics
AAP Schedule of Well-Child Care Visits - HealthyChildren.org (AAP)
Visiting the Pediatrician: The First Year - HealthyChildren.org (AAP)
1st Week Checkup Checklist: 3 to 5 Days Old - HealthyChildren.org (AAP)
Checkup Checklist: 4 Months Old - HealthyChildren.org (AAP)
Fever and Your Baby - HealthyChildren.org (AAP)
Recommendations and Rationale for Using WHO Growth Standards - CDC
Child Growth Standards - World Health Organization
CDC’s Developmental Milestones - CDC, Learn the Signs. Act Early.
Milestones by 2 Months - CDC, Learn the Signs. Act Early.
Your Baby’s Health and Development Reviews - NHS
Paracetamol for Children - NHS
Patients’ Memory for Medical Information - Kessels RPC, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2003

How to Prepare for Your Baby's Checkup