You must keep on top of your health. And if you’re a parent, it’s not just your health that needs care and maintenance, it’s your entire family.

Given the vast and ever-improving amount of knowledge we have about healthcare and the countless effective methods for preventing poor health, it’s a topic you can’t ignore or dismiss. 

For a young family, the toughest challenge—outside addressing illness—is keeping abreast of everyone’s health needs in between balancing other regular appointments like sporting clubs and after-school activities. That’s why an annual appointment checklist can be a great aid to keep you on track and help plan ahead.

If health-admin sounds daunting, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s our essential annual appointment checklist for young Aussie families to tick off throughout the year.

1. Dental check

Checking your teeth annually is an essential task, as we only grow one adult set in our lives. If we lose those, it’s onto dentures. While dental hygiene has become a regular and fuss-free part of our daily routines, no one cleans their teeth well enough to avoid dentists forever.  

As young children grow and then lose their baby teeth, regular appointments are essential to check everything is on track, even if that means heading a few suburbs over to a local Epping family dentist to guarantee your kids a friendly experience. 

Attending dental appointments can become a genuine fear, and everyone is susceptible. This can range from becoming a nuisance to a paralysing terror. That said, overcoming dental anxiety is far less painful and expensive than ignoring the problem (for kids and adults!), and leaving dental issues untreated can eventually cause more serious health problems.

2. General Practitioner (GP) check

The second annual appointment to put on your list is with your family’s General Practitioner (GP). Building a solid relationship with your family GP is the first line of defence in dealing with health issues. While your GP can’t address every issue your family might experience with their health, they will know who can, and point you in the right direction.

Especially as your children are constantly growing, a routine appointment can help identify issues early on, before they become larger problems. Common ailments such as fatigue, headaches or nosebleeds can often be handled with simple treatments such as an intravenous iron infusion or taking vitamin supplements, although you’ll need to visit a professional to get the diagnosis or prescription first.

3. Skin check

There’s no denying it, we’re a nation that loves the outdoors. Sports, the beach, barbecues year round; if the sun is out, you can guarantee families across Australia will take full advantage. The risk with this enthusiasm is skin damage, an issue all too common to Australians. 

The sun doesn’t discriminate, so make sure you include a yearly skin check for every family member on your appointment list. Start getting familiar with your family history around skin issues. If your parents have been treated for conditions like melanoma in the past, this will mean your family is at higher risk. 

Also, get familiar with giving yourself and your family members skin checks. Pay attention. If that spot on your shoulder wasn’t there last month, you know what to do. 

4. Eye check

Annual eye checks for your family are another good, proactive practice. For the younger members of your family, it’s important to identify and address any eye issues early on so they can grow and develop properly. For the older family members, it’s equally important to monitor and address deteriorating eye health.

Having your family’s eyes checked is about more than just vision. A thorough eye check is a great idea for kids during school holidays, and can also be a way to detect other chronic illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes.  

5. Hearing check

Similarly to eye checks, ear checks make sure your children’s hearing is developing at a normal rate. This is especially important for newborn infants and toddlers who might not yet be able to communicate verbally. Hearing checks can also help pinpoint issues with speech and language development such as stuttering, as well as delays or difficulties in social settings such as community clubs and schools.

For the adults in your family, it’s a good idea to check your ears at the same time, as our hearing ability declines as we age, so it’s important to monitor any rapid changes or deteriorations.

Understanding nuance: why age matters

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to health checks, especially when the people getting checked are from different generations. Health issues for a toddler are different to health issues for someone approaching middle age. 

When you make your checklist, divide your family members into newborn, toddler, child, teenager, and adult categories. This detail is critical as certain issues take on different meanings at different stages of our lives. It’s a focus worth pursuing as it lets you thoroughly map each family member’s appointment year