2019 Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has approved the 2019 Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care (Periodicity Schedule) which is a schedule of screenings and assessments recommended at each well-child visit from infancy through adolescence. AAP will describe updates to this annually reviewed schedule in the policy statement, “2019 Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care,” published in the March 2019 issue of Pediatrics (published online Feb. 25). The updated periodicity schedule, which was last published in April 2017, includes revised footnotes on screening and management of high blood pressure in children and adolescents, as well as revised footnotes on assessing the risk for anemia and prevention of childhood lead toxicity that were part of policy statements published by AAP in the past two years. Each child and family is unique, therefore, children and adolescents with other health and psycho-social issues may require frequent counseling and treatment visits separate from preventive care visits. These recommendations represent a consensus by the AAP and Bright Futures Periodicity Schedule Workgroup. The periodicity schedule will be available at the AAP website, www.aap.org/periodicityschedule, but will not be published in Pediatrics.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit www.aap.org and follow us on Twitter @AmerAcadPeds