You have just become parents, you are discharged from the hospital and they tell you that from now on the medical checks will be carried out in the primary care center, also called basic health area or commonly outpatient, which is what it was called before.
A few years ago you were leaving the hospital on the third or fourth day after giving birth, sometimes even later, depending on whether the delivery had been vaginal and everything had gone well or if it had been by caesarean section. Now the time of stay has been reduced to the point that there are parents who already go home on the second day (you know, we are in crisis and sleeping in a hospital costs a lot of money).
This causes many of the problems that appear in newborns when they have more than 48 hours, such as eating half well, badly or fatally, or also sleeping at night as if it were day (waking up 237 times) , happen at home, when parents feel they are doing something wrong.
For this reason it is recommended that as soon as the parents leave and go to do all the paperwork, ask for time at the health center to the first visit to the baby so that there they do the first review (which shows what I will comment next) and solve all possible doubts.
The control of weight, height and cranial perimeter at the first visit of the baby
Controlling the weight of children is one of the things that parents find most important and that in reality is less relevant, unless the child is a newborn. Most children gain weight and grow perfectly and it is not necessary to measure and weigh them because just by taking a look at them, it is already known whether things are going well or if there could be a problem. However, we are used to being weighed and measuring the child and it seems that we are not going home calmly until the pediatrician tells us that "uff, how much he has grown" or that "he is gaining weight perfectly".
As I say, newborn babies do have to be weighed because leaving hospital, the biggest problem they may have is that they are eating little. The weight you have on the day of the visit is contrasted with the weight you made when you left the hospital and with the weight you were born with. The goal is to see that after losing weight during the first 2-3 days, something logical and normal, the baby has already begun to gain weight.
Let's say it is worrisome when a baby loses 10% of his body weight (if he weighs 10% less than the weight he was born with), but he usually tries not to reach that limit, and if the trend is seen to be on the downside they begin to look for solutions. That is to say, it is not usually said “calm, that it is still 8% and does not reach 10%”, but that if it has already lost 8%, to say something, and it gives the sensation that it will continue losing, Professionals try to find the causes to offer solutions.
After weighing it, the pediatrician (or the nurse) will measure the baby, who may have grown a few centimeters, or may even measure less than in the hospital (not that they shrink, but perhaps there was some error in measuring or recording) and They will also measure the cranial perimeter, more than anything to have a reference that everything is normal, because there will not be too varied with respect to the measurements at birth.
Cardiopulmonary auscultation
In the First visit to the health center is usually a small cardiopulmonary exam, which consists of auscultating the baby's chest to check that the heart beats normally and that the breathing is correct.
General Status Assessment
In addition to measuring the baby's head, the appearance of the head is checked and the fontanelles are measured, which should not be bulging or sunk, the status of the navel is checked, which could have already fallen (the umbilical cord, not the navel) ) or it could still be quite fresh in some areas, the baby's abdomen is palpated, the genitourinary system is observed and the skin color is assessed (in case the baby has jaundice). The sense organs are also examined: the eyes, nose and ears.
Assessment of the musculoskeletal system and nervous system
Another of the Valuations carried out by the pediatrician is the locomotor system and the baby's nervous system. The hips are checked and the skin folds are observed in that area, to rule out possible dislocations or subluxations, the legs and feet are looked, the symmetry in the movement of the arms, in case there could be any fracture of the clavicle not observed in the hospital and an examination of the baby's reflexes is done: something like an ITV to see that the infant does everything he has to do.
Baby feeding the first days
Another of the things discussed in this first visit, if the issue has not been touched upon at the time of controlling the weight, is the feeding: how are you feeding, how often do you eat, if you regurgitate, how are the bowel movements, how often do you do them, if there are discomforts when breastfeeding, if there are cracks in the nipples, etc.
Other questions that may have arisen
Finally, the mother (and father) can expose the doubts that could have arisen the first days and that have not yet been resolved. The most common are usually related to sleep, since babies may have some days in which they wake up much more than others, with the skin, since all babies are irreparably peeled, with nails, because some are scratched and Mothers do not know when or how to cut them and with clothes, because they are very concerned that their baby is too warm or too fresh.
