Westbourne Green

Surgery

Your personal child health record (Red Book)

Shortly before or after your baby is born, you will be given a personal child health record, also known as the “red book”. It’s a good idea to take your baby’s red book with you every time you see the Health Visitor or GP. They will use it to record your child’s weight and height, vaccinations and other important information. You can also add information to the red book yourself, such as illnesses or accidents your baby has, or any medicines they take. You’ll find it helpful to keep the developmental milestones section of the red book up to date too.

Newborn hearing test

Your baby will also have a hearing test soon after birth. If you have your baby in hospital, this may happen before you leave. Otherwise, it will be done some time in the first few weeks in your home or at an outpatient clinic. The newborn hearing test is highly recommended, but it’s not compulsory. If you decide not to have the screening test, you’ll be given checklists to help you check on your baby’s hearing as they grow older.

Find out more about the newborn hearing test.

New baby review with Health Visitor

A Health Visitor will complete a new baby review within 10 to 14 days of the birth. A Health Visitor can give you advice on: safe sleeping, vaccinations, feeding your baby (breastfeeding and bottle feeding), adjusting to life as a new parent, your baby’s development and immunisation needs, including BCG vaccination.

To contact the Westminster Health Visiting team, please call 0208 200 2500 Monday – Friday, 9am to 5pm. For local baby clinic locations, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

GP 6 to 8 week baby check

In most cases, the Practice will contact new mums to arrange for a 6 to 8 week check with a GP. On rare occasions where we are unaware of the birth, we ask that you give us a call and arrange your baby’s 6 to 8 week check. This will include a physical examination and a review of development (feeding and weight gain; vision and hearing, social behaviours). This will also be a good time to receive health promotion advice and discuss any future immunisations your baby will need.

Health Visitor 9 to 12 month health and development review

In the review, the Health Visitor will look at, among other things, language and learning, safety, diet and behaviour. Your Health Visitor will send you an ASQ-3 questionnaire to fill in before the review. This helps you and your Health Visitor understand how your baby is developing and discuss any concerns you may have. Please do not worry if you cannot fill in the whole questionnaire – the Health Visitor will help you complete it.

For local baby clinic locations, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

Health Visitor 2 to 2-and-a-half years health and development review

This is usually done by a nursery nurse or health visitor, and may happen at your home, baby clinic or the children’s centre. If your child has started going to nursery, playgroup or a childminder, the review may be done there. You, a Health Visitor, keyworker or childminder will all do the review together. The review will include general development, including movement, speech, social skills and behaviour, and hearing and vision; growth, healthy eating and keeping active; managing behaviour and encouraging good sleeping habits; tooth brushing and going to the dentist; keeping your child safe; and vaccinations.

For local baby clinic locations, please see below.