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As a parent, one of your duties will be to
document your baby's health history.
Here's what you need to monitor and how
to keep it simple.
Once your baby has been
in your life for just a
short time, you'll be able
to recite certain details
about her by heart, from how much
she weighed at birth to the day she
beamed her first smile. But in an emergency,
would you know the correct
names of any medications she has
recently taken? Or if a physician asked,
could you recall which lab tests she's
received, and their results?
While your pediatrician has this
and other important information in
your baby's medical chart, the chart
won't always be immediately available
to the medical professional who may
need it. "In this day and age, babies
are often examined by another pediatrician,
or in the emergency room or
when out of town on vacation - it
seems babies often get sick away from
home," explains Marjorie Hogan, M.D.,
an associate professor of pediatrics at
the University of Minnesota and director
of Pediatric Medical Education at
the Hennepin County Medical Center
in Minneapolis.
Someday, Hogan anticipates, most
electronic medical records will be in
30 New Parent Spring+Summer 2006
wide use and will help
make information more
readily accessible. But
until then, maintaining
your own record of your
baby's budding health
history can keep you
prepared for the unexpected,
as well as help
you share insightful
information with your
pediatrician at your next
well visit. How you keep these records
doesn't matter, as long as it's a system
that's simple enough to work for you;
even a single notebook and a folder or
binder for paperwork can suffice. (For
more ideas, see "Mission: Health
Information Organization" box.)
To get started, plan to record the
following information during your
baby's first six months of life.
First feedings
"In the first couple of weeks it can be
helpful to record feedings: how much
the baby is eating and how frequently,"
advises Peter Contini, M.D., a pediatrician
in San Jose, California. "But for
new parents who are busy and sleep-
deprived, it can be hard to remember
these things." He suggests keeping a
simple log of how long and how often
your baby has nursed, or if you're
using formula, how many ounces of it
he has ingested.
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