What to expect during toddler check-ups

Pediatrician Jay Gordon, MD, shares advice for parents on what to expect during your toddler's check-up and what health and development factors will be assessed
What to Expect During Toddler Check-Ups
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What to expect during toddler check-ups

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I do checkups fairly frequently in the first few months of life; one week, two weeks, four weeks, four months, six months, nine and twelve months. At twelve months of age, the checkups get let frequent, maybe no less important. I do a checkup at fifteen months of age, two years, and then three years of age. Many pediatricians are doing a mid-year checkup, at two and a half years of age. It's the developmental checkup. I tell parents that when I do an ear exam, things probably haven't changed. Listening to the heart, although it's important, the heart hasn't changed. Development is changing. Especially first time parents won't know what language development looks like, what normal behavior in an eighteen month old should be, how a twenty four month old should act. During those checkups, there's a lot more than just eyes, ears, heart lungs, feel the belly. It's a development discussion about development and nutrition. If your doctor is not doing that, pull it out of the doctor because you need a lot of time to assess normal development. Early diagnosis of language issues, developmental delay, delayed motor skills can make a big difference. Early diagnosis and treatment can change everything.

Pediatrician Jay Gordon, MD, shares advice for parents on what to expect during your toddler's check-up and what health and development factors will be assessed

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Jay Gordon, MD

Pediatrician

Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC - In the middle of his residency training, pediatrician Jay Gordon took an unusual step. Deciding that he needed greater knowledge about nutrition, vitamins, and alternative medicine in order to practice medicine the way he wanted to, Dr. Gordon took a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Nutrition at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. After his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dr. Gordon joined the teaching attending faculty at UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Intensely interested in infant nutrition and breastfeeding, Dr. Gordon is the first male physician to sit for and pass the International Board of Lactation Certification Exam and has served on the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League for 24 years.

In addition to treating patients, he participates in the training of medical students and residents, lectures all over the world, writes books, and writes a monthly column for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine. He has contributed to “New York Parent,” “Parenting” magazine and has been quoted in the L.A. Times, New York Times, and The London Times.

Dr. Gordon’s first book, the well-received Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow, offers a life-changing plan for families who want to make dramatic changes in health and fitness through nutrition. Brighter Baby examines the positive effect that attachment parenting, combined with infant massage, has on children’s health and intelligence. Other releases include: Good Night! The Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed and Hug Your Baby, a Gentle Guide through the First Year, which was released summer, 2002. He also authored Listening To Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn, which still gets great reviews from parents. His most recent book is The ADD and ADHD Cure, the Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child.

When the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Television and the Media named Dr. Gordon “the most influential doctor in America,” they were referring, tongue-in-cheek, to Dr. Gordon’s role, as the medical script consultant, in eliminating lollipops from the office of “Doctor Weston,” lead character on the sitcom “Empty Nest.”

After two years of consulting on television scripts, sets, and ideas, Dr. Gordon was named CBS TV’s Medical Consultant for Children’s programming. He also worked for five years on ABC Television as the on-air medical correspondent for the “Home Show,” and continues to consult regularly for television and movies. He’s appeared on Fox 11 News, ABC’s 20/20 and most recently on Larry King Live. 

Dr. Gordon contributed and wrote the forward to Smart Medicine for a Healthy Child and The Encyclopedia of Vitamins and Supplements (both published in 1999), is pediatric consultant for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine and a frequent contributor to “Parents,” “Parenting,” and other media outlets.
 Busy as he is, Dr. Gordon finds that his most challenging job is “being a good husband and the best possible parent to my 22 year-old daughter.”

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