CLINICAL SERVICES

CHILD HEALTH SURVEILLANCE

Care for children

We work together with our health visitors to do eight-week checks. You should have your baby weighed and measured at Stormont clinic on the tuesday afternoon before the check. You should then come by appointment to our baby clinic when your baby is 8 weeks old. These checks are to make sure that your baby is developing normally. At the eight-week check we offer the first primary immunisations against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough, haemophilus influenzae and meningitis C. At eight months our health visitors will arrange for your baby to have a developmental check.

The health visitors have a drop-in session on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons,1-3pm, at Stormont Road Clinic, for weighing and general advice about caring for your baby. Immunisations can be booked with our nurse.

We advise parents to have children immunised against measles, mumps and rubella with the MMR vaccine. If you want more information about MMR,visit imunisation.nhs.uk.

The Health Visitors organise two-year and three-and-a-half-year checks. They offer practical support where needed for families with children up to five years old, and run post-natal groups in the surgery.

When the health visitor comes to see you at around 10 days after the birth of your child, she will give you a 'red book' giving information about child care, immunisations and routine check-ups. Please bring this book to all baby clinics and to consultations with doctors during the baby's first year of life: it may be helpful to refer to it.