Permission to reproduce the guides and resources for noncommercial purposes is granted with acknowledgment. For all other purposes, please contact the American Academy of Pediatrics to request permission.
Use this space to jot down notes as you interview potential pediatricians.
Use this space to write down notes as you interview potential caregivers for your baby. (Please see Nanny Sample Questionnaire and Child Care Center Sample Questionnaire on pages 73–75.)
Use this space to write down notes as you tour the hospital where you plan to deliver your baby.
Use this space to write down your experience during your hospital stay and during your first few days at home with your new baby. Remember to look back on your reflections on your child’s first birthday.
Use this space to write down questions about breastfeeding as they arise.
Use this space to write down questions about your baby’s health in between pediatrician appointments.
Following are activities we all spend time on, arranged randomly:
Rank these activities in order according to what you, in an ideal world, would spend the most time on or doing. Rank them as a private, honest list, not according to how you think other people would want you to rank them or how you think you should rank them.
Now, rank the activities according to what you actually spend time on throughout the week or month.
Compare your first list (your ideal list) with the second list (your reality list). How do they match up? Use the top 3 items on your ideal list to help you determine a self-care ritual.
List several activities you and your partner each like to do, individually.
List 4 experience activities you and your partner could do locally together (think beyond dinner and a movie [eg, concerts, hikes]).
List 4 bigger experience activities you and your partner could do together (eg, trips, events).
Potential child care options?
Potential barriers?
Self-care doesn’t happen by luck; it happens by design. Follow these steps to make your self-care goals.
Think about what makes you happy in your life right now when it comes to self-care. Write out the top 5 things (your happy list) and then the top 5 things you wish were different (your wish list).
Then, set 3 SMART self-care goals based on your wish list: SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time sensitive.
It’s not worth it to have something like “I want to feel better about myself” as a goal. Feeling better is a good starting place, but it’s just too ambiguous. There is no way to tell whether you’ve actually achieved your goal once you get there.
Measurable goals have an outcome you can assess after a certain amount of time to determine your level of progress. That way, you know when you’ve met your goal and are ready to set a new goal.
If you set a goal that is too far out of reach, the chances of you reaching that goal are pretty slim. For example, an unattainable goal for me would be “I will be a marathon runner next month.” Instead, “I will complete a 10K run in 3 months” is not so daunting.
Realistic goals are goals that are not based in fantasy. Instead, they are possible to achieve, even if it takes several steps to accomplish them. For example, I could set a self-care goal of going to Italy 5 times a year, but I know that’s not going to happen (I can’t take that much time off work, I don’t have the money for it, and I wouldn’t have the child care resources for it). A more realistic goal? Going out of town with my husband (to a local venue or somewhere a short plane trip away) 3 times per year. We may have to save money to do it or I might have to work a little extra to make it happen, but it’s something that I know is not completely far-fetched if I plan ahead and make it a priority.
Even with self-care goals, time is an important element. If my desire is to be more physically fit and my goal is to work out more to achieve that desire, I need to set a timeline, so that I can get organized and motivate myself to actually make the change. For example, “My goal is to write a children’s book by 1 year from now. I’ll do step x by 1 month from now, step y by 2 months from now, and step z by 3 months from now to work toward that goal.”
Breaking our goals into smaller steps makes it even more likely we’ll achieve them.
Use this log to keep track of your baby’s feedings, stools, and urinations.
Circle an S (soiled) when your baby passes stools and a W (wet) when your baby urinates.
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W
Use this log to keep track of your baby’s feedings, stools, and urinations.
Circle an S (soiled) when your baby passes stools and a W (wet) when your baby urinates.
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W
When your baby is fussy, first remember to consider these common reasons a baby can be uncomfortable or crying.
If your newborn won’t calm with these basic care techniques, call your pediatrician for help. If your baby has persistent fast or labored breathing or has a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, call your pediatrician’s office immediately.
List the members in your immediate support circle (friends and family you can call for advice or help) as well as your emergency contacts. Keep this list on your refrigerator for easy access.
Hospital phone number:
Pediatrician phone number:
Lactation specialist phone number:
Support person number 1:
Support person number 2:
Support person number 3:
Support person number 4:
The AAP is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists, and pediatric surgical specialist dedicated to the health, safety, and well-being of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. Its official website for parents, HealthyChildren.org, offers trustworthy, up-to-the-minute health care information and guidance for parents. Find a vast library of articles on breastfeeding from AAP experts designed to help families become more informed and find answers to common breastfeeding questions.
Includes basic information about breastfeeding, such as the safety of vaccinating pregnant women, traveling and breastfeeding, and other helpful information about breastfeeding and disease prevention.
ILCA is the professional organization of lactation consultants and may be able to provide assistance with locating a lactation consultant in your area.
Offers many resources for families including breastfeeding help, explanations of breastfeeding laws, breastfeeding publications, links to local LLLI leaders and groups, and more.
a Developmental milestones are intended for discussion with parents for the purposes of surveillance of a child’s developmental progress and for developmental promotion for the child. They are not intended or validated for use as a developmental screening test in the pediatric medical home or in early childhood day care or educational settings. Milestones are also commonly used for instructional purposes on early child development for pediatric and child development professional trainees.
These milestones generally represent the mean or average age of performance of these skills when available. When not available, the milestones offered are based on review and consensus from multiple measures as noted.
b It is recommended that a standardized developmental test be performed at these visits.
c It is recommended that a standardized autism screening test be performed at these visits.
Sources: Capute AJ, Shapiro BK, Palmer FB, Ross A, Wachtel RC. Normal gross motor development: the influences of race, sex and socio-economic status. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1985;27(5):635-643; Accardo PJ, Capute AJ. The Capute Scales: Cognitive Adaptive Test/Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale (CAT/CLAMS). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co; 2005; Beery KE, Buktenica NA, Beery NA. The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, Sixth Edition (BEERY VMI). San Antonio, TX: Pearson Education Inc; 2010; Schum TR, Kolb TM, McAuliffe TL, Simms MD, Underhill RL, Lewis M. Sequential acquisition of toilet-training skills: a descriptive study of gender and age differences in normal children. Pediatrics. 2002;109(3):E48; Oller JW Jr, Oller SD, Oller SN. Milestones: Normal Speech and Language Development Across the Lifespan. 2nd ed. San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing Inc; 2012; Robins DL, Casagrande K, Barton M, Chen CM, Dumont-Mathieu T, Fein D. Validation of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F). Pediatrics. 2014;133(1):37-45; Aylward GP. Bayley Infant Neurodevelopmental Screener. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation; 1995; Squires J, Bricker D. Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3): A Parent-Completed Child Monitoring System. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co; 2009; and Bly L. Motor Skills Acquisition Checklist. Psychological Corporation; 2000.
Suggested citation: Lipkin P, Macias M. Developmental milestones for developmental surveillance at preventive care visits. In: Hagan JF Jr, Shaw JS, Duncan PM, eds. Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents. 4th ed. Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics; 2017.
2019 Recommended Immunizations for Children from Birth Through 6 Years Old
Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and the Vaccines that Prevent Them
Last updated January 2019 • CS300526-A
* DTaP combines protection against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
** MMR combines protection against measles, mumps, and rubella.
