Product Review: Your Child's Health & Wellness Record

Description:

Your Child's Health & Wellness Record consists of two components: The record itself, filled with pages of forms on which you write in all the details of your child's health and developmental history; and a Document Organizer, a large notebook for filing important papers. Both are highlighted by large black-and-white photos of children and their families, taken by the books' creator and author, Karen Melnick. She recommends using one record per child, and one organizer per family.

What's Included in the Record:

Forms are divided under the following tabs: Getting Started; Current Health & Wellness Information; Pregnancy & the Newborn; Growth & Development; Medication, Etc.; When Something Isn't Right; The Medical Team; The Rest of the Health & Wellness Team; and Miscellaneous. Each section starts off with a page or two of information written by Melnick, who is a nurse and a mother of three. The "Current Health & Wellness Information" tab contains a pull-out sheet to be kept up-to-date and brought to the doctor's office. The inside front and back covers have pockets for tucking in papers.

What's Included in the Organizer:

The large three-ring notebook has pre-made tab dividers for Medical Specialists; Other Health & Wellness Professionals; Clinics & Facilities; Interventions; Education; Insurance; Receipts; Resources; and Miscellaneous. There are also thirteen blank dividers and more than fifty pre-printed stickers to apply to them, as well as some blank stickers for making up your own titles. The notebook also has pockets inside the front and back covers.

Dimensions:

The record is 8.75 inches high by 10.5 inches wide by 1.25 inches deep. The organizer has a two-inch three-ring binder and is 11 inches wide by 11.75 inches high by 3 inches deep. Both have thick covers similar to a hardcover book.

Sample Forms:

Under the record's tab for "When Something Isn't Right," for example, there are:

• 3 pages for "Illnesses & Conditions"; columns for date, age, diagnosis, physician, notes (26 lines/page).
• 2 pages for "Diagnostic Tests"; columns for date, age, diagnosis, physician, notes (26 lines/page).
• 4 pages for "Hospitalizations & Operations"; spaces for age, physician, specialty, hospital, date admitted, reason, date discharged, diagnosis, procedure, notes (3/page)
• 2 pages for "Health Equipment"; spaces for age, equipment, received, returned, location, notes (5/page)
• 6 additional lined pages for notes.

Pluses:

• It's an absolutely beautiful package, with enchanting photos and sturdy, high-quality materials.
• The forms and supporting material have been well thought through by someone who is both a parent and a medical professional.
• While there is a section for pregnancy and newborns, you can start this for your child at any age.
• Care has been taken to include material important to children with special medical and developmental needs.
• If you've been lazy about organizing those records, having something this nice may motivate you to do it.

Minuses:

• The wire binding in the record doesn't open, so if you use up the forms, there's no way to add more.
• Similarly, there's no way to remove pages you don't need except by ripping them out.
• The nice elastic band that holds the record shut is not attached -- meaning, at least in my house, that it will quickly be lost.
• You may need to invest in clear page protectors to store things in the document organizer that are not neatly or advisedly hole-punched.
• If you've been lazy about organizing those records, chances are you'll put off filling out all these forms, too.

  How to Get It:

  The record and organizer can be ordered online from the Your Child's Health & Wellness Record site. Prices are $25 (US) for each part, or $40 (US) for the pair.

  My Review:

  I can't say enough how really, really nice-looking the two components in this record-keeping set are. You could easily put them on display in your home, if they didn't contain all the intimate details of your child's health history. Those are important details to gather in one place, and keep up with, and have accessible for future appointments and procedures and crises. Being able to lay your hands on them quickly is a beautiful thing, too.

  And a particularly important one for parents of children with special needs. Not every baby book or wellness record takes the time to include all the non-wellness possibilities, and I appreciate Melnick's effort to do so here. There are checklists for developmental milestones at various ages that might help you catch whether your child is missing some, places to record details about medications beyond the ones your child might get for a cold or flu, and pages on which to detail all the specialists and therapists who evaluate your young patient.

  I'll admit that I'm a sucker for well-executed organizational tools like this one. And I'll admit that I often buy them, put them aside for an idle day when I can fill them out, and then never touch them again. There's the weak link of a product like this: the work that you have to do to make it work. The many, many useful forms here require precise, small writing and concise descriptions, to be entered by parents who may not have enough brain cells left at the end of the day to remember their children's full names.

  Still, it's a job that needs to be done, and you know it. And it's hard to imagine a nicer place to do it than this.