Baby health review schedule
Enter your baby's date of birth to see when each routine health and development review falls due, what it covers, and the NHS weighing frequency for a healthy baby. The dates are windows rather than appointments, and the tool says so at every step.
Baby health review schedule
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Optional. Used to show the earliest a next weigh-in would fall under the NHS guidance — which is a maximum frequency, not a target.
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10 July 2026 to 17 July 2026 — a window, not an appointment. Weighed at birth and again during their first week, mainly to check they are regaining their birthweight after the normal early dip.
Your baby’s age on 10 July 2026: 0 days
Open now: First weight check — the window runs 10 July 2026 to 17 July 2026. Weighed at birth and again during their first week, mainly to check they are regaining their birthweight after the normal early dip.
Next review window: 6 to 8 week review — opens 21 August 2026 and closes 4 September 2026. A thorough physical examination.
How often a healthy baby should be weighed at this age: In the first 2 weeks your baby is weighed to check they are regaining their birthweight. That is a maximum, not a target.
Earliest a next weigh-in would fall under NHS guidance: Your baby is under 2 weeks old, and in the first 2 weeks they are weighed to check they are regaining their birthweight. The “no more than” intervals start after that.
What these reviews are not: Not the vaccination schedule — immunisations run on their own timetable and are booked with your GP surgery. Attending a development review does not mean a vaccination has happened, or the other way round. And not a test: there is no score and nothing to pass or fail.
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How this is calculated
FormulaHow the schedule is worked out
These are the routine health and development reviews the NHS offers, often called health visitor checks. They are offers within windows, not appointments on fixed days, and the tool prints windows for that reason.
Step 1 — the review points
The NHS sets out reviews at these points:
- Shortly after birth — your baby is weighed at birth and again during their first week.
- 6 to 8 weeks — a thorough physical examination.
- 9 to 12 months — a review covering, among other things, language and learning, safety, diet and behaviour.
- 2 to 2-and-a-half years — a further health and development review.
The NHS describes these reviews as offered until your child is around 2. Early contacts also cover safe sleeping, vaccinations, feeding, and adjusting to life as a new parent.
Step 2 — turning ages into dates
window start = date of birth + lower bound, window end = date of birth + upper bound,
in completed weeks or months as published. The tool shows the whole window and marks today's position inside it
rather than generating a single date that would imply a precision the schedule does not have.
Step 3 — the weighing frequency
This is published separately and is the part most worth having. In the first 2 weeks your baby is weighed to check they are regaining their birthweight. After that, if your baby is gaining weight and neither you nor your health visitor has concerns, they should be weighed:
- no more than once a month up to 6 months of age;
- no more than once every 2 months from 6 to 12 months;
- no more than once every 3 months over the age of 1.
The tool shows the earliest date a next weigh-in would fall under that guidance, because the most common pattern behind growth anxiety is weighing far more often than this and reading normal fluctuation as a trend.
Step 4 — what this schedule is not
It is not the vaccination schedule. Immunisations run on their own timetable and are booked separately, and this site has a separate tool for them. It is also not a developmental assessment: the tool lists what a review covers, and does not ask you to score your baby against anything.
The schedule described here is the one published for England. Arrangements differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and other countries run entirely different programmes, so the tool labels which system it is showing rather than presenting it as universal.
When are health visitor checks due?
In the first weeks after a birth, someone comes to see you, and then someone else, and then there is a clinic, and it is genuinely difficult to work out which of these were the important ones and what is still to come. The routine reviews are a short list, and knowing it makes the year less confusing.
The reviews on offer
Your baby is weighed at birth and again in their first week, mainly to check they are regaining their birthweight after the normal early dip. Around 6 to 8 weeks there is a thorough physical examination. Somewhere between 9 and 12 months there is a review looking at language and learning, safety, diet and behaviour. And between 2 and 2-and-a-half years there is another health and development review.
Alongside those, the early contacts with your health visiting team cover safe sleeping, vaccinations, feeding whether you are breastfeeding or bottle feeding, your baby's development, and how you are adjusting to being a parent. That last one is not filler. The postnatal period is when maternal mental health problems are most likely to appear, and these visits are one of the main ways they are picked up.
Windows, not appointments
Every one of those is a range. A review at “9 to 12 months” is not late at 11 months, and one at “6 to 8 weeks” has not been missed at 7 weeks. Services schedule within the window according to their own capacity, and being contacted towards the end of a window is ordinary rather than a sign you have been forgotten.
If you reach the end of a window and have heard nothing, it is worth a phone call to your health visiting team. Records do go astray, particularly after a house move or a change of GP, and reviews are easy to fall through if nobody notices.
How often should a baby be weighed?
This is the most useful number on the page, and it is a maximum rather than a target. Once your baby is past the first fortnight, and provided they are gaining weight and nobody has concerns, the NHS says they should be weighed no more than once a month up to six months, no more than once every two months from six to twelve months, and no more than once every three months after their first birthday.
Read that again as an upper limit, because most parents read it as a schedule to meet. It is guidance against weighing too often, and it exists for a reason.
Why more weighing makes things worse
A baby's weight on any given day depends on when they last fed, when they last had a dirty nappy, which scales were used and how the baby was positioned on them. Those differences are large enough to swamp a week's real growth. Weigh weekly and you produce a jagged line where each dip looks like a problem and each rise looks like a recovery. Weigh monthly and the same underlying growth appears as a smooth, readable curve.
Growth is judged on the trend across several points on a centile chart, not on any single measurement, and certainly not on the difference between two consecutive weeks. If you have been weighing frequently and worrying, stopping is usually the single most effective intervention available.
What the reviews are looking for
The reviews are broad by design. Physical examination, growth, feeding, sleep, development, safety at home, your own wellbeing, and whether you have questions. They are not tests your baby passes or fails, and there is no score.
Bring things up even if they feel small or unrelated. Health visitors deal constantly with feeding worries, sleep, crying, and parents who are struggling, and none of that is an imposition on the appointment — it is substantially what the appointment is for. If you are finding things hard, that is a reason to speak, not a reason to present well.
Your red book
The personal child health record, the red book, is where growth, reviews and immunisations are recorded. Take it to appointments, including hospital ones, and keep it. It is the only place your child's early health history sits in one place, and it moves with you between services and areas. Some regions now run a digital version alongside or instead of the paper one.
This is not the vaccination schedule
These reviews and the immunisation programme are separate things on separate timetables, and they are often confused because both involve appointments in the first year. Vaccinations are booked with your GP surgery on their own schedule. A development review is not a vaccination appointment and attending one does not mean the other has happened.
Different countries, different systems
The schedule above is the one published for England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own arrangements with different contact points, and countries outside the UK differ far more. Well-child visits in the United States, for example, are considerably more frequent and are delivered by paediatricians rather than health visitors. If you have moved between systems, expect the shape of it to change and ask what applies where you now live.
If something is worrying you between reviews
Do not wait for the next scheduled contact. Health visiting teams have drop-in clinics and phone lines, and your GP is available for anything that seems more urgent. Reviews are a safety net for things nobody has noticed, not the only permitted moment to raise a concern.
If your baby is unwell rather than just worrying you, that is a different route: contact your GP, call 111, or in an emergency call 999.
Sources
- Your baby's health and development reviews — NHS, accessed
- Your baby's weight and height — NHS, accessed
- UK-WHO growth charts, 0-4 years — Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, accessed
- WHO Child Growth Standards — World Health Organization, accessed
- Ages and stages: baby — American Academy of Pediatrics (healthychildren.org), accessed