With two young children in our family, it’s fun to watch each of them reach new developmental milestones. Seeing the sparkle in their eyes when they discover a new ability is a pretty heartwarming nod of self-confidence for them too!
Apart from meeting milestones, their health and development are always our priorities. Worrying health concerns would warrant a trip to the doctor. If we have any queries about their well-being, they are addressed during our immunization appointments or developmental milestones checks at the polyclinic.
Keeping track of children’s development and milestones
Thankfully, both children are growing well and healthy, save for Leroy who seems to be on the smaller side. But the doctor at the polyclinic assured me that he was within the healthy percentile for his growth. In fact, I’m now glad to be able to keep track of his growth via the HealthHub app, which links the immunisation and vaccination records and upcoming appointments, as well as milestone checklists and growth charts too. I don’t even have to scramble through his health booklet to check what jabs he has received, or when our next appointment is!
With a preschooler and a toddler in the family, watching them grow and discover new things about themselves is part of the fun!
Children’s health records from birth and beyond
The HealthHub app houses our children’s immunisation and vaccination records right from birth. Over time, we are able to keep track of these immunisation and vaccination jabs that have been administered at the polyclinic. When they enter primary school, the system will automatically update as well, so parents have easy access to these records even if we don’t have the health booklet with us. All that’s needed is our SingPass to log in and a verification code for security purposes.
Immunisation and vaccination records are updated in the HealthHub app. There’s even an explanation about each jab that children in Singapore need.
Since we go to the polyclinic for Vera and Leroy’s immunisations and vaccinations, I could easily view our next scheduled appointment via the HealthHub app too!
Growth charts and milestones – recorded and checked with one app
Besides recording each child’s head circumference, height and weight, which automatically populates into a chart for easy reference, it also tells us the percentile they are at. To share knowledge with parents, there are also useful articles and tips which talk about children’s development, or addresses certain common health concerns.
Little Leroy’s growth is charted for easy reference to see if he is within the healthy percentile.
When it comes to milestones, the HealthHub app is loaded with a convenient checklists personalised to the child’s age. Milestone categories go by: Personal Social, Fine Motor-Adaptive, Language and Gross Motor, and they are further sorted by the year for easy reference. Alternatively, we could also view the children’s milestones by age, which would bring us to different milestones sorted by months. Simply select ‘Yes’, and it gets recorded as being completed for the child.
This helpful milestone checklist makes it easy to do quick checks on your baby’s development and shows the upcoming milestones you can look forward to!
I guess the whole idea of including the growth charts and milestones checklist is to make it really easy for parents with a one-stop access through one health app. We don’t need to Google for child development checklists regularly; it’s there all the time for us to check now. In fact, it works like a health information app and a health tracker app, rolled into one for convenient access!
An app for the health-savvy parent too!
As you might already know, I’m pretty conscious about our family’s diet and overall wellness. A fitness instructor once shared with me that a healthy body is made up of 80% diet and 20% exercise. I’m still trying to work on that 20%! 😛
Browsing the HealthHub app stirs me to make a more conscious effort towards healthy living. After all, I need to be in good condition before being able to care for my children and family, right? That’s pretty much similar to the airplane safety guide – how else can an oxygen-deprived adult help a child?
The app sharing some useful insights for parents too! At the Personal Health Tab on the navigation bar, scroll to Health Risk Assessment to take the Diabetes Risk Assessment. Simply answer some questions to understand your personal diabetes risk level. This initiative is part of the Let’s Beat Diabetes campaign to help the community understand their health risks, and better manage our lifestyles.
Thankfully, I’m not at risk for diabetes! But my BMI prompted a note on the risk of nutritional deficiencies and osteoporosis. I guess I can have better manage my health thanks to the diet-fitness rule – I need to do more of the latter!
I have to be honest – my feeble attempts at exercise after becoming a mother have been gnawing at the back of my mind ever since. I pay quite a bit of attention to what I eat, but due to the demands of juggling work, family and other commitments, I often find myself struggling to find pockets of time for exercise. It’s not like I don’t try – sometimes the odds just work against me! My recent attempt at HIIT was surprisingly fun, but a couple of days later, I was hit by an unrelated bug and nearly had to be admitted to the hospitable for dehydration. Inevitably, I missed the next class the following week, which was the last class at the same venue and time! >.<
So when I was playing around with the HealthHub app and discovered the ‘What’s On’ tab on the navigation menu, my heart skipped a beat! The menu showed ‘Events’, ‘News’ and ‘Programmes’ and I was thrilled to see health-related listings as well as fitness programmes! Best of all, MOST of these fitness programmes are FREEEEE! I know I sound like a prudent mum who prefers to save on myself, but for someone who’s unsure whether my dormant muscles can actually survive the workout, I signed up for two in a heartbeat! 😛
Wish me luck at the fitness sessions! Well, all those overnight oats I’ve been eating need a workout companion to keep my body happy, right? 😛
Take charge of your family’s health and download the HealthHub app on the App Store or Google Play to keep your children’s health records conveniently at your fingertips. Visit www.healthhub.sg/childrenhealth to find out more.
Have you tried using the HealthHub app to track your child’s growth and immunisation records? Do share your thoughts about it!