A new health record for children will come into force on 1is January, introducing new advice to parents in particular on the use of screens and a new compulsory exam at the age of 6. In this revised version, the twenty compulsory health examinations are all detailed, declared Friday December 27 the Directorate General of Health (DGS) in a press release.
For each age, benchmarks are offered to parents to situate the child in his development (social, cognitive, motor), with prevention messages relating to “scientific and societal developments” .
They will find advice on raising their child without violence, tables on the introduction of foods, advice on sleep or benchmarks for detecting neurodevelopmental disorders. The new health record now includes questions concerning the practice of physical activity until adolescence as well as exposure to screens and then their use, “in a process of identification by the health professional of the misuse of screens”. For adolescence, questions to identify endometriosis or identify the psycho-affective state appear in the notebook.
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Compulsory exam at age 6
In terms of medical surveillance, a new examination is made compulsory at the age of 6 for “strengthen prevention when the majority of children enter primary school, particularly in terms of sensory screening and developmental disorders”. This control will also be an opportunity “to carry out the booster vaccination against whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis recommended at 6 years of age”according to the DGS.
During examinations during the child’s first year, prevention messages are sent to parents concerning sleeping position, unexpected infant death and shaken baby syndrome, lists the DGS.
The healthcare professional will also provide information on the “risks of postpartum depression for the mother and the importance of parent/child interactions”.
The part of the notebook reserved for caregivers now includes information on risk factors for vision disorders and advice on identifying a neurodevelopmental disorder. For vaccinations, modifications follow the new obligations and recommendations. The copy of these two double pages serves as a vaccination certificate, particularly for the admission of children to a community. The dematerialization of the health record should be integrated, by the end of 2026, into the digital space My Child Health Space, underlines the DGS.
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