Promoting Age-Appropriate Development

Immediately after birth, the midwife checks to see if your baby is physically healthy—a preliminary assessment. However, as children get older, the question of age-appropriate development becomes more complex. Differences in pace are normal and usually nothing to worry about.

The U1 through U12 well-child checkups provide a reliable guide for this. Using standardized examinations, pediatricians track your child’s physical, mental, and social development. The goal is to identify developmental delays or health issues early on and to initiate appropriate support measures in a timely manner.

U1 through U12 well-child checkups with a pediatrician

The U1 through U9 well-child checkups are designed to detect diseases and physical, mental, and social developmental abnormalities at an early stage. During each checkup, we also check to see if any vaccinations are due or if any booster shots are needed. Further studies up to the U12 age group focus in particular on schoolchildren and adolescents and are intended to provide indications of when students are facing excessive demands, stress, or health risks in their school or social environments.

Not all statutory health insurance plans cover the costs of checkups starting with the U10. Therefore, check with your health insurance provider early on to find out which services are covered.

Should Early-Detection Screenings Be Mandatory?

From a strictly legal standpoint, you are not required to take your child to the U-checkups. In practice, however, compliance with these deadlines is closely monitored in many federal states. The reason for this is that these preventive health screenings not only serve to detect health issues early on, but can also provide indications of possible parental overload or of neglect, abuse, or maltreatment. This is also in your child’s best interest, since they are often cared for by other caregivers outside the family in their daily life.

In North Rhine-Westphalia and several other federal states, pediatricians are required to report certain cases. Parents will receive a written reminder about upcoming checkups if they have missed appointments. If the investigation is still not conducted within four weeks after that, the responsible youth welfare agency will be notified, and it will determine how to proceed.

A similar policy is in place in Berlin: There, too, parents are notified in writing if their children miss their checkups. The goal of these procedures is to increase participation in the U4 through U9 well-child checkups and to identify potential risks to children at an early stage.