If you’re a parent, then you likely know that there is a lot that comes with the territory. Keeping your child or children safe and happy is a big job, and one that certainly has many different facets to it. One part of this is monitoring their physical health and growth through the aid of regular doctor’s appointments. Taking your child to the doctor is a hugely important thing to do, and not one that can be overlooked in terms of importance and the like.

After all, very young children must go in to see the doctor on quite a regular basis, to say the very least. When they are first born, regular check ups are incredibly frequent. For instance, they must go in again at only two weeks of age, and then at two months, four months, half a year, nine months, and finally for their yearly check up. After this point, things become more spread apart and the average child will typically only go in for wellness checks every half of a year or so. Once they hit three years of age, only yearly wellness checks become needed, much as they are for adults as well.

But why do even healthy children go in to see their pediatrician so frequently? For one thing, it’s to chart their growth. Childhood – particularly in that first year of life – contains many periods of rapid growth. This growth must be charted and looked after to make sure that children are sticking within a normal range when it comes to their growth patterns. If they are not, then getting to the root of the issue will become necessary.

In addition to this, vaccines for children are hugely important and many of these vaccinations, if not just about all of them, will take place at these well child visits. Vaccinations of varying kinds are administered over a period of years, all throughout childhood and sometimes even into adolescence. These vaccines are critical for preventing disease that could otherwise prove, all too easily, to be disabling or even deadly. For many people, the threat of such diseases are well worth the incredibly small risk of having these vaccinations performed.

Sometimes, however, your child will still get sick. Colds among children are particularly common, especially after they are into the second half of their first year of life, when any immunity gained from their mothers during pregnancy has really begun to wear off. Colds come often for small kids as they begin the process of building up their own immune systems, with the average healthy child getting as many as eight colds in a single year – and typically no less than seven even if they are lucky. Fortunately, this tapers off by the time that they reach their teen years, when the adult level of only getting four colds a year takes place.

If you’re worried your child might be sick, consider taking them into a pediatric clinic. A pediatric clinic can be a great place to go for any variety of smaller concerns, and if your child has anything from a cold to an ear infection, the pediatric clinic is the place to be. Going to a pediatric clinic instead of to an ER or even to your doctor’s office can save both time and money. In addition to this, the hours at the typical pediatric clinic in your neighborhood are likely to be far better than the hours at the local pediatrician’s office. Therefore, a pediatric clinic is the place to go in the evenings and even in the early mornings, allowing you to fit comprehensive medical care in around an otherwise busy schedule.

Ultimately, taking your child in for wellness checks as well as to a same day pediatric clinic can be hugely beneficial to their health. What’s most important, of course, is simply staying on top of their health care needs no matter what those needs might be or grow and evolve to be in the future. Vaccinating them on schedule is a great way to keep them safe and healthy, as too is charting their growth with frequent visits to your pediatrician as has been deemed ideal.