Immunisation
Immunisation is an important part of protecting your child. The immunisations your child requires depends on their birth date. Take a look at the various immunisation schedules for children born after 1995. You can get your child immunised by your doctor, at one of the Brisbane City Council free immunisation clinics or through the Community Child Health Services.
Regular health checks
If you have a baby, The Bub Hub has lots of information on the services provided by your local Community Child Health Clinic. The clinics can help you with everything from immunisation and regular check ups to free telephone advice when bub is doing something unexpected.
The Bub Hub also has information on sight and hearing checks for your baby, sleeping problems, colic and local baby massage classes.
For young children sight, hearing and dental health checks are recommended. The Bub Hub provides a good overview of when and why these tests are necessary. You can also check out Attune (formerly known as Queensland Hearing) and the dental health fact sheets from Queensland Health. Hearing and dental problems can impact on speech development, so it makes sense to check for problems prior to your child starting school.
Regular dental, sight and hearing checks are important for all ages and should always be a part of your good health planning.
Common child health problems
Young kids and head lice - why do they have such a close relationship? Head lice, or nits, can be difficult to treat and get rid of, causing disruption to schooling and parental battles over the treatments. Find out more about the best way to tackle them from Queensland Health.
At the other end of the body from head lice are feet. Children’s feet need to be cared for properly to develop correctly. Properly fitting shoes allow little feet to grow without damage. If your child walks with their feet turned outwards or has an unusual pattern of wear on their shoes, they may benefit from preventative podiatry. Read a brief article about how to care for children’s feet or contact a podiatrist for further information.
Find a healthcare provider
Do you need a doctor, dentist, massage therapist or naturopath? You can search the ourbrisbane.com directory for Allied and Health Services to find a health care professional in the Brisbane area. Or you can use Doctors4U to locate Brisbane specialists, doctors, hospitals, chemists and other health services. You can search by location or name, and it also includes some informative articles on health for children, women, men and seniors.
HealthInsite has hundreds of health related articles, links to organisations and information about health issues for all ages.
Support for parents
Parenting isn’t an easy job. There are decisions to make and issues of discipline, education, social skills and relationships to consider. Brisbane has a lot of support for parents who are finding it difficult and the Internet provides a lot of helpful information.
If you are coping with the emotional complexities of a recent separation or need some advice on dealing with a difficult child Relationships Australia runs a range of courses that can help. Relationships Australia also has counselling and mediation services which can help you over the rough patches in your family relationships.
For exasperated parents help and advice is available by calling the Parentline on 1300 30 1300. Take advantage of the skills of the telephone counsellors who will help with any parenting issues. Sometimes just talking to someone can make problems easier to cope with.
Parenting tips and techniques
Another tool for tackling parenting is to practice some of the techniques developed by the Triple P program. Triple P is the Positive Parenting Program which has been developed over 20 years of research and assessment at The University of Queensland.
A great resource for everything to do with babies and young children is the Bub Hub. Developed by a Brisbane couple, this site is a wealth of information for all parents.
