How Often Do You Take Your Kids for Their 'Well-child' Check-ups?

My son was in sports so he had to have a physical every year...that was also what his doctor recommended.

I have a 6 and 11 year old. I have always taken them in every year. My kids don't mind, the doctor doesn't mind and I like to hear how they are growing in height, weight and developmentally.

Everytime when they were little-I had 5 children age 7 and 1/2 and under-we practically lived at the pediatrician's office. My children alone put three of his children through college and at least one of them through med school! As they got older-we were always scrambling to get the meningitis vaccine for college-but when they were young-without fail!

once per year for annual physicals.

and as needed for other issues.

When the school makes me. :)

Actually, I take them however much my ped recommends. Mine does suggest annual checkups so that is what we do.

Yearly and my kids are 5, 8 1/2 and 11

I might take them in during August if they haven't been there for another reason in the few months prior. Nice to know they're growing on schedule, but not much more than that. Insurance covers it 100% too. We go to our chiropractor at least once a month and more if sick.

If kids are not getting an annual exam....how are they getting their vaccinations on the right schedule? I know vaccines aren't annual after a certain point, but how do people keep up with that?

I always take my child every year. I know one family whose daughter had scoliosis (curvature of the spine issue, can be serious) and it was found in a well-child checkup; there were no symptoms obvious to the parents.

I know another family who found their son, a very active athlete, had growth plate issues and needed to stop playing sports for one spring season to let a growth plate heal and recover; they were unaware of the issue and if it hadn't been found in the checkup, he would have continued to play and probably injured himself, maybe long-term or permanently.

For these and a host of other reasons -- like, kids are growing constantly and it's easy to miss what's going on with their bodies if you're not a doctor yourself -- I would always take my child annually. Plus, it helps build a relationship with the doctor. A doctor will be able to see what's going on with a child better if the doctor knows that child a little better.

And yeah we get the teeth cleaned every six months, and an optometrist exam every year!

I take mine annually. They are now 18 (he has to make his own appts now), 16, 14, and 5.

As often as our insurance allows, once a year.
We pay dearly for that coverage, I make sure we use it!

My insurance quits paying for them after the child's 5th birthday, so for us this year will be the last... unless we get better insurance then we will go annually.
Personally I believe an annual check up is appropriate for people of any age.

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Annually. My girls are 8 and 10. My insurance covers the visits.

we have been going yearly. My kids are 4 and almost 7

My kids go every year on the dot. I really want it down officially how tall they are and how much they weigh. In realitiy I almost always have questions to ask even at this age. I can usually get they their annual flu shot at the same time and I can get copies of immunization records for school, daycare, etc. It serves as a time to get all their medical records, etc. My kids pedi is located in a busy hospital park so having to only do things once is a convineience thing. Besides my insurance charges nothing for well visits for kids and I pay dearly for it so why not?

We did 4 times a year til age 1, two times a year to age 2, and then annually. My insurance covers the well child visits 100% up to age 16, so that's definitely what we'll do til then.

We go annually and so do our kids.

We do every year and feel most comfortable doing that. I want to make sure everything is going great with my kiddos and that we don't miss anything that we need to know about or new preventative measures/medicine etc.

We did annual checkups till our son was 11, then we went to every other year.

Every year!! My kids are 5 and 16. Our Peditrician goes over where they are and where they should be developmentally. I love to see their growth and percentages! They do too!! I think its good to get them in the habit of going once a year and hope they continue to go as they become adults. My kids are extremely healthy and feel its important to stay that way! Don't you go see your Doctor once a year? Whether it be your family Dr or your OBGYN??

An annual check-up will do. Kids that age are more prone to sickness.

Before my son got sick, I took him annually, mostly to keep up a relationship with his doctor. He was robustly healthy, or so we all thought.

After my son started having breathing problems, yearly well child visits would just be silly. We've been "in" / had appointments over 40 times in the past 6 months, and the previous 6mo we spent 3 of them in hospital.

I'm VERY glad we had a working relationship with his doctor to start off with, and then more so now that we've figured out he's been having these problems for 6 years. We ALL missed them, because he's adapted so well. Not saying anyone SHOULD go see a doctor just so you don't feel terrible if there is a chronic problem discovered, just glad I had been. I'd have been even MORE grateful if it had been caught sooner... but hey... my son is the last person anyone would think was in the 70's & 80's in his o2 stats... because in the 70's he's STILL smiling/laughing/running around like crazy. It kept CPS out of my hair, and at least I didn't feel worse than I already did at having missed these problems for years and years.

Once a year, and I do not see a reason to do it more often than that.

I have never missed one for my ten month-old or my four year-old. At the four year check up, my ped did mention that we could do visits every other year for the older child if we would prefer. If you and your doc are comfortable with it then go ahead, you can always make an appointment if you need one in between.

Not until it's required for school physicals. I take them in for shots and for when they are sick, so they see the Dr annually anyways. I don't feel the need to fork over a whole bunch of cash just for the Dr. to look at them for less than 5 minutes and tell me they are fine.

I had one Dr try to get me to take my (younger) child in for well check visits about 6 times in one year. They would call me to set an appt for the 'vaccines', I would go in and it would be a well child visit. Then they would say sorry, schedule an appt for the vaccines a week later, then THAT would be another well visit. They duped me a couple of times that way, I was so fed up I switched Drs.

Yearly. My second child wears glasses so needs to go in to get that checked. My kids are home schooled so they don't get the in school hearing tests, eye exams or scoliosis checks among other things. My kids are 11, 8 and 2 1/2. While babies we take them in on the schedule of every month or couple months or whatever it is before they turn 3 when it goes to yearly.

I used to be faithful in taking my kids for their well-child check ups, but since they have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, I haven't taken them for a well-child because we go to the endocrinologist at least every 3 months and those visits are much more thorough than a well-child.
Both our endo and our MD are fine with that.

My kids are healthy and our DR. Is a holistic MD so pretty noninterventious. We go on a regular infant schedule and then every year until 5. After that we can come every year, every other year or whenever. We don't follow a standard vax schedule so that is not a problem. I usually schedule a well visit every other year.

I took my 9 year-old daughter this fall for a well-child checkup and found out it had been four years since her last one. She is incredibly healthy, hasn't missed a day of school since first grade (she's now 1/2 way through 4th) and is growing normally. The well-child checkup was brief and I'm still not sure it was completely worth it. Whether "your insurance pays" or not, unless you have a child with health issues, I think every other year is often enough.

Once a year. They are 4 and almost 8. My insurance covers it at 100%.

I do yearly check ups with all my girls ages 11, 6, and 4. I think it will help them when they are older to do their annual visits. Yearly check ups are so important for women, so my hope is that they will automatically continue since it is what they are use to.

Annually. My boys are 7 and 14.

Annually. They haven't been sick often in the past few years (knock on wood) so it's sometimes the only time they see the pedi. I like that she sees them often enough to have a sense of who they are - for example, she normally jokes a lot with my oldest son and has a good, funny repiore with him so when I brought him in for abdominal pain, she had a pretty good idea of how severe his pain was because she knew him well enough to the see the change in his comportment. My SD hadn't seen a PCP in 4 years when she moved in with us so she started with my pedi last year and they don't have the same relationship yet and it makes assessing her symptoms more difficult.

Our insurance covers one well visit per year, so that's what we do. Kids are 14, 11 and 9. It's nice to know that the doc can watch the kids grow up and I like that my kids are comfortable with their doctor. Now that they're in their teen/tween years, I find it even more important for them to be able to ask their doctor anything and feel confident and comfortable around her. Seeing the doc every other year or every few years wouldn't accomplish that as much as a yearly visit would.

I don't have school age kids yet but don't schools require a physical or at least some sort of form before they start school every year? I remember going every year before school started to get a physical and getting the forms filled out. Do schools still require this or not? Just curious.

We go every year for each child. That's just standard around here.

I only take mine when they are sick or need their shots.

We do yearly checkups in MN.

My son's doc saw him quaterly to monitor his adhd, now that we are seeing major improvements he has reduced it to semi annually, one day I am sure it will be anually, but I think it is best to go in for regular check ups, I never did as a teen and I regret it.

Our insurance pays for one well child visit per year...they do growth check, vaccinations, etc. I usually take advantage of it - our premiums are quite high, so I figure we've paid for it somewhere along the line.

I assumed that everyone went annually. I take my kids once a year. I like to check in with the dr, i would not want to wait every other.

Annually until age 5, then as needed after that. "As needed" means when the school requires it or if they are sick or injured with something I can't treat at home.

So far we try to get the kids in for a physical every year. DH is very good about doing it for his own health. I am not. Physicals are also required for sports, so every year that SS was in a sport, he had a physical.