THE WELL-BABY CLINIC AND PILLARS OF PREVENTIVE CHILD CARE

Abstract

This article targets all who are committed to the care of young children.   Commencing with the clinical history and physical examination, the fundamentals of preventive child health offered in a well-baby clinic are highlighted. In this important clinic, the monitoring of core health components such as nutrition, growth, development and vaccination as pillars of preventive health services augments the health status of both a community and a nation. It is here that much needed information on infant nutrition in the first eighteen months of life, exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding, early growth and development, together with the provision of immunisation, is delivered. Health care provision is further strengthened by integrating knowledge with progressive dynamics of health services in line with the government’s health objectives such that communities are empowered with crucial information on preventive health.  Significance to local scenarios, pertinent to parents and of importance to preventive health, with community relevance, is touched upon. In this way, it may be opportune to attempt innovative parental counsel on contextually related issues linked to the everyday care of children, whenever necessary.  Of interest and given the focus of this journal, specific health concerns apropos to a military scenario, may well be further deliberated on and developed.