The necessity of the annual doctor visits

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The necessity of the annual doctor visits

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You need to take your child to the doctor every, single year. We call it, the annual check-up. It's a time that you are saying to your kid, "Your health is so important to me, that we are going to take an hour out of our schedule and look at how you are growing and talk about how to prevent illness. Talk about how your body is changing. It's really, really important." Parents who doubt this, I want you to think ahead about four or five years when your child is a teenager. They are facing difficult issues; whether it's a health issue or a social issue, like tobacco, alcohol, drugs, sex. You want to have an established relationship with your doctor, who is going to talk to your child in a way that you are comfortable with and a way that your child is comfortable with. If you haven't gone in for all of those annual visits, you haven't established that relationship for your child. So, when they are three, they start doing those annual visits every single year. Around their birthday time, you keep going. Go back every single year. Try to go see the same doctor.

Watch Cara Natterson, MD's video on The necessity of the annual doctor visits...

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Cara Natterson, MD

Pediatrician & Author

Cara Natterson, MD has treated thousands of children and guided their parents as well. She was a partner at Tenth Street Pediatrics in Santa Monica, California, a large group practice serving infants, children and teenagers. She now runs Worry Proof Consulting, the first of its kind pediatric practice that offers parents open-ended time to review everything from medical questions and biology basics to child development and parenting issues. Cara is also the author of several books on parenting and child health. She has a unique ability to translate cutting edge research into understandable terms for parents and their kids. More recently, Cara’s consulting has extended beyond individual families to include fortune 500 companies seeking expert advice on safety issues, child health, and crisis management.

Cara has appeared on television, in print, and on the web. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and she trained in pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco. Cara is a Board certified pediatrician and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. And anyone who knows her knows that Cara is, by nature, one of the most risk-averse people on earth. She lives in California with her husband and two children.

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Transcription: 
You need to take your child to the doctor every, single year. We call it, the annual check-up. It's a time that you are saying to your kid, "Your health is so important to me, that we are going to take an hour out of our schedule and look at how you are growing and talk about how to prevent illness. Talk about how your body is changing. It's really, really important." Parents who doubt this, I want you to think ahead about four or five years when your child is a teenager. They are facing difficult issues; whether it's a health issue or a social issue, like tobacco, alcohol, drugs, sex. You want to have an established relationship with your doctor, who is going to talk to your child in a way that you are comfortable with and a way that your child is comfortable with. If you haven't gone in for all of those annual visits, you haven't established that relationship for your child. So, when they are three, they start doing those annual visits every single year. Around their birthday time, you keep going. Go back every single year. Try to go see the same doctor.