As we enter back-to-school season, a to-do that might slip your mind is your child’s annual checkup and physical. Dr. Omar Jaber, M.D., MPH, at the primary care and community pediatrics office at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., discusses everything parents need to know about your child’s health before they head back to school.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
When is the prime time for kids to get their annual sports physical and checkups?
What a lot of parents don’t realize is that the physical exam, sports physical, annual wellness checkups do not need to be tied to the beginning of the school year. They don’t need to scramble every August or September to make sure that their child is seen by a doctor before the school year starts. For a child born in November, that exam from the previous year still is valid until the child’s birthday again.
Why is it important to check in with your pediatrician before school starts?
Sometimes a school may require a vaccine before registering, and so it’s a good idea to check in with your pediatrician. And certainly, there are children that might have underlying circumstances. A child with ADHD or anxiety may need to have a checkup with their pediatrician to make sure that any medications that they need prior to starting school don’t need any refills.
How should families be preparing for the start of school?
Summertime is often a downtime, kids fall out of their routines and school is very structured — early wake up time, early bedtimes. My advice would be in their next two to four weeks, kicking back into what would normally be their school routine. So, trying to get kids to go to sleep earlier and to wake up earlier. Try to give them a couple of activities that might be a little bit more educational. Start to wind down some of that screen time.
If they’re going to be taking a bus, driving or walking in a new neighborhood, incorporate that into their morning routine so that they have some familiarity of what the street might look like, what the noise might be like so that they’re not caught off guard.
What else should parents know before entering the new school year?
Try to tailor the things that you’re buying for your child’s interests. If a child likes Pokémon, you want to get them a Pokémon lunchbox. Something like that can not only help calm them because they see something familiar and they are excited about using that item, but they can also build friendships by sparking talking points.
What can parents do to prepare their own morning routines?
Parents themselves, I would say, just from a time management perspective, you can also start packing your child’s lunch if that’s going to be part of your routine, because packing a lunch is going to interrupt your own routine in the morning. So, having that already set up and ready to go. Same thing with clothing. Having all of that prepared over the next couple of weeks can help the whole family adjust to what the morning routine might be like, especially if you have multiple kids and if you have a 9-to-5 kind of job.
