can a well child visit be done by a video visit? 

In the time of COVID-19, many primary care and specialist physicians have moved to video visits for their patients for many conditions. A video visit allows a family to limit their time outside the home and around other people. For many conditions a video visit is a great alternative, but when it comes to a well child visit, pediatricians want to see children in person. 

Here are 4 reasons a well child visit is better in person:

1. Vitals:  At a well child visit your child’s weight, height and blood pressure will be taken. It’s hard to get a baseline for these when they are sick and it’s difficult to get an accurate reading at home. Having these taken in the office with tools that have been used before, like the office scale, also allows your child’s doctor to accurately plot their growth on a chart and to see if their growth pattern is healthy. 



2. A comprehensive exam: During a well child visit your child’s pediatrician wants to be able to examine them thoroughly. This includes looking at their skin, feeling their belly and lymph nodes, looking inside their ears and mouth, vision screening etc… Most of the time major issues aren’t found during a well child visit but it allows your child’s pediatrician to know that they have a clean bill of health. That way, if something does come up a few weeks or months later, they know it wasn’t there before. 



3. Vaccines: It’s important to stay up to date on schedule with your child’s immunizations. This is one thing that definitely cannot be done over video and a big reason why it’s important to keep your well visit to a in person visit. 



4. Building trust: Along with ensuring your child is healthy, one of the main purposes of a well child visit is building trust with you and your child. It can be more difficult over a video visit to interact with both the parent and the patient. Being in person allows your pediatrician to interact with both of you more freely allowing them to build upon that relationship. 

what types of conditions are good for video visits? 

While a well child visit may not be good for a video visit, there are plenty of sick visits that can work very well over video. Inquire with your pediatrician’s office on what conditions they can see by video. Some of those conditions may include:

• Rashes

• Minor respiratory conditions

• Allergies

• Pink eye

• Vomiting and diarrhea

• Headache

• Constipation

• Minor injuries to help determine if your child needs to be seen in person