In 2025, a new health record will replace the old one, which was eight years old. The document is a little more extensive and includes 128 pages, including the usual ones on vaccinations, weight and height curves. The Ministry of Health has made some additions, notably including a long section on advice to parents, exposure to screens, diet and the identification of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Better control children’s screen time
This health record adapts to new social practices. This is why many prevention messages on our relationship with digital technology have been added, explains Doctor Khadoudja Chemlal, who coordinated the writing of this new notebook. “In a world where we are invaded by screens, we tend to put children in front of them. We can clearly see that they are hypnotized and that during this time, they are not doing anything else“, describes the doctor, who also works at the General Directorate of Health at the Ministry of Health. “We realize that overexposure to screens seriously harms the child’s psychomotor development”she adds.
For Khadoudja Chemlal, the recommendations are clear. On the one hand, screens must be banned before the age of 3, but it is also important to have “direct interactions between parents and children“. “You have to play with them, it’s really part of their psychomotor development.r,” she concludes.
Food, violence: lots of more substantiated advice
Advice on diet also appears in this new child health book, explains pediatrician Fabienne Kochert. With other members of the High Council of Public Health, she had made recommendations, in particular on vegetable milks, which “are not milk at all” she warns. Dietary diversification for babies now takes place from 4 months and is also considered. “For example for gluten: now we tell you that it can be introduced between 4 and 6 months. Everything is well marked“, specifies Fabienne Kochert.
In addition to advice relating to screen time or diet, the 2025 version notebook is also more extensive on the subject of physical and psychological violence. Advice is also provided for doctors, for example to help them identify neurodevelopmental disorders.
A mandatory visit to the doctor at 6 years old
This health record introduces a new compulsory examination by the doctor, at the age of 6, a pivotal age since it corresponds to entry into CP. “It is important to be able to detect learning disorders at this time. We must also check that there are no weight difficulties, because we still have epidemics of obesity. And check that the child is in good mental health, that he does not have anxiety disorders”lists Khadoudja Chemlal.
The doctor adds that this new examination will also allow parents to think carefully about giving their children a vaccine booster. At the age of 6, boosters against DTP must be given (diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis), but also against coqueluche.
From 2026, thisThe new version of the health record should be further improved. It could gradually give way to the digital record, that is to say a dematerialized health record.
