As parents stock up on school supplies and clothes for the upcoming school year, ensuring their child’s health should be at the top of their back-to-school to-do list.
For many parents, the weeks preceding the first day of school is the perfect time to schedule an annual well-child appointment. “Every child needs a yearly physical,” explains Dr. Leah Matthews, a pediatrician with Texas Children’s Pediatric Associates North Shore. “Many parents believe that once a child has received all of his vaccinations that an annual well-child visit isn’t necessary but this simply is not the case. This exam gives parents a chance to discuss any issues related to their child’s health and development as well as any learning or attention problems that occurred in the previous school year.”
The back-to-school visit also may uncover visual or hearing impairments that, if untreated, may lead your child not to do as well as he could in school. “Depending upon what a pediatrician finds during the vision screening of an annual physical, she may refer your child to an optometrist or an opthamologist for further treatment,” explained Matthews.
If your family is starting off in a new school district this year, make sure you understand the new school’s health requirements and bring this information to your pediatrician for review. It’s never safe to assume that your former school and your new school will have the same health requirements. Also make sure to completely and carefully fill out any health-related paperwork with the school.
Parents also can prepare for a healthy school year by ensuring their child has healthy sleeping habits, eats a nutritious breakfast and lunch, and has a backpack that, when filled, weighs no more than 5 percent to 10 percent of the child’s body weight.
