A Day at the 18-Month Health Checkup

When my son turned 1 year and 7 months old, we went for his 18-month health checkup!


I've summarized the day, but it got a bit too long because I wrote it in detail...
If you have time, please read it (lol).

The information sent by mail in advance stated:
Check in between 1:00 PM and 1:30 PM.
It also listed what to bring (only the Maternal and Child Health Handbook and the questionnaire).
The questionnaire was sent along with the guide,
and I filled it out and brought it with me on the day.

What I thought when I saw the guide was,
It overlaps with his usual nap time...
But I definitely want him to take a nap before we go! Definitely!
So, the schedule and the checkup details for the day were like this.

~Schedule until the checkup~

6:00 Wake up
7:00 Breakfast
9:00 Walk (1 hour)
To burn off energy, I just let him walk!
10:30 Lunch
11:30 Nap starts
12:50 Wake him up
Let him sleep until the last minute and wake him up in a hurry (lol).
Hydration and diaper change.
13:05 Departure
13:20 Arrival, check-in
I don't know the total number of people, but we were 15th.
14:30 Checkup finished

~Flow of the 18-month checkup~

My son froze at the entrance of the checkup venue.
He was surprised at first because it was a new place (lol).

When entering, we put number stickers on our clothes,
and were told to wait in an open space until called after checking in.
There were no toys, but there were many picture books,
and there were free childcare workers who played with him, which was helpful.

After being called in about 15 minutes, it went quite smoothly!

From here on are the checkup details.
By the way, my son went in with zero preparation!

1. Interview with a childcare worker

First, he had to stack 5 wooden blocks.
The blocks were quite small! Bite-sized!
Even though he didn't seem motivated, I encouraged him,
and he stacked up to the 4th one, but it kept collapsing on the 5th one (lol).
He managed to stack them for a second, and we got the okay.
This took quite a while.

Next was the pointing test.
There were 6 illustrations on one sheet of paper:
a doll, scissors, a bowl, a dog, a car, and a fish.

I had only taught him the dog and the car...!!
He pointed to only those two and cleared it.

Finally, the shape-sorting puzzle.
Fit a circle into a board with circle, triangle, and square holes.
He fit it in easily and finished.

After that, they roughly checked the contents of the questionnaire.
There was also a short interview about what words he could say.
My son said 8 words and two-word phrases like "it was there."

The public health nurse said she would listen to any concerns later, and that was it.

2. Dental checkup

We were guided to the next station for the dental checkup.
I was a little nervous.
He has 16 teeth, and there was no plaque! That's good!
The dentist said that his front teeth are starting to protrude slightly due to thumb-sucking. It's currently just within the normal range.
He said we should try to make him realize that sucking his thumb is not good. That's difficult to do right now...
It finished in about 5 minutes.

3. Toothbrushing guidance

We prepared two toothbrushes (one for the child and one for finishing).
Get the child used to the toothbrush.
Decide on a specific order for finishing the brushing.

It's best to brush in a circle from the outside to the inside of the teeth, and from the back teeth to the front teeth.
(The point is not to scrub, but to apply the brush to the teeth in small movements.)

Apply fluoride gel mainly to the front and back teeth when finishing.
We use the grape-flavored Check-Up, and they said that's fine.

I brush my son's teeth by pinning him down with my legs,
and when I asked if he would grow to hate brushing,
they said it's important to establish the habit of brushing even if you have to pin him down!!

It seems that children who don't have this habit when they are small often get cavities when they become elementary school students.
My son, let's keep doing our best...!

Also, regarding thumb-sucking, they said we should take our time and slowly stop it between age 2 and 3.
They said it's a source of emotional stability right now, so don't worry about it.
I was a bit anxious, so that was a relief...

So, personally, the toothbrushing guidance was the most useful part!!

4. Medical checkup

He stripped down to his diaper for height and weight measurement.
The results were 86cm and 13.5kg.

He started exceeding the growth curve around age 1,
so he's actually a big boy (lol).
(His weight has been over the curve since he was a baby.)

During the pediatrician's examination,
they said his weight is not a problem since he is also tall.

I wrote "he suppresses his crying" as a concern on the questionnaire,
and regarding that, they said he is a child who is good at switching gears.
His brain development is a little fast and he thinks a lot~
As long as he doesn't stop crying because of pain, there's nothing to worry about~
They told me that, and I felt relieved.

The doctor was so kind, it made my heart melt.

5. Nutritional Guidance

They showed me a guide with illustrations for the recommended daily food intake (e.g., X grams of rice, X grams of meat, this much banana), and said that his current snack habits are fine. At home, I mostly give him fruit and sweet potatoes, and when we're out, I often give him store-bought snacks.

When I mentioned that he recently stopped eating green vegetables, they said that's very common at this age! Is it also common for them to eat them if you make it into a Chinese-style rice bowl?

As I wrote earlier, my son is a big boy, so everything ended without any concerns (lol).

6. Interview with the Public Health Nurse

This is the last part...!
There was some time before I was called for the interview, so we waited while reading picture books.

Time for the interview!

Since my concern was that he 'holds back his crying,' I told her what the pediatrician had said.
The public health nurse also said that from what she could see, he seems to have good comprehension and is calm.

However, since he can't express himself well with words yet, it's good to voice his feelings for him.
That was the advice I received!
After that, I received some pamphlets and it was over.

And with that, the checkup was finished!

It took about an hour from reception to leaving.
I think it went smoothly without any particular trouble.

With kids playing and crying, the place was quite lively, and my son seemed to be enjoying it too.
I brought his favorite toy just in case, but it never made an appearance.

On the way out, we high-fived a friend we met at the entrance to say goodbye.
I was soothed by that heartwarming scene at the end!

After the checkup, we stopped by Mister Donut for a little celebration for the two of us before heading home.
Sweets after running errands really hit the spot.

So,
I'm relieved that the 18-month checkup is safely over.

This ended up being very, very long,
but thank you for reading until the end!
I hope this is helpful to someone out there.