Tracking your child's development

Keeping a written journal of your child's milestones and health information can be useful. It's a good idea to track as much information about your child as you can. You'll find it's not only practical when school wants a medical form filled out in conjunction with an overnight class trip or sports club, but also for checking which vaccines your child has already had. One day the sad news came home from school that a student had died of bacterial meningitis. A quick glance at my son's records calmed me when I saw he had received the Menactra vaccine to guard against this.

Paula Parker in her article on keeping a medical journal for your child, gives a step-by-step list of what to keep and what to record. I cataloged all those "firsts"....first tooth, first word, first haircut..., and all the "favorites" ...favorite food, favorite toy (Measure Up Cups), favorite t.v. show... on an adorable calendar. I also have a graph of how his height and weight progressed. These records, combined with the teeth he's lost, a lock of hair, his hand and footprints, his first shoes will all serve as a keepsake for my son to reflect back on when he has a child of his own! (I was horrified when my own mother showed me some of the records she had kept about my earliest days. The recipe the pediatrician had given her for baby formula, back in the time when breastfeeding was out of fashion, included Karo syrup and evaporated milk!! Yuck!)

It's never too late to get started.