Well Child Care at 8 and 9 Years

Nutrition

Eating meals together as a family has many benefits. Mealtime is a great time to let your child tell you about her interests, concerns, and worries. Encourage your child to talk and to listen to others as they share stories and experiences. This helps keep your family feeling close and connected. Children who have meals with their families are less likely to smoke, drink, and abuse drugs, and more likely to do well in school.

With supervision, your child may enjoy helping to choose and prepare the family meals. Prepare meals that have foods from all food groups: meats, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and cereals and grains. This helps teach good food habits.

Keep healthy snacks on hand. Most children should limit how much fatty food they eat. Bring healthy foods home from the grocery store. Kids should drink soda pop rarely. Milk is a healthier choice. Children over 2 years of age usually should drink low-fat or skim milk, unless they need more calories.

Development

Kids usually have a lot of energy at this age. Make sure your child has plenty of chances to run and play outdoors.

Physical skills vary widely at this age. Find activities that fit your child’s skills. Ask your healthcare provider for more information about choosing a sport that fits your child's interests and body type. Fine motor skills, like writing, improve a lot at this age. Let your child know that you see how she is improving.

Keep reading together each evening. Set rules about media use. Know what kinds of apps and games your child uses, and what they are doing online. Limit how much time your child spends using computers, tablets, TV, videos, and other electronics. Don’t let your child watch shows with violence or sex. Play video games, read, or watch TV with your child and communicate with your child while you do. Children need physical play and face-to-face conversation to stay healthy and learn language and social skills. Having a TV, computer, or video game in your child's bedroom increases your child's risk for obesity, sleep disorders, and attention problems. Your child needs time to unplug and recharge. Participate in active play with your child, and be a role model by limiting your own use of technology.

Social Skills

Finding friends is very important. Children at this age are imaginative and get along well with others their own age. They are very concerned about what other kids think about them. They are starting to understand that other people have feelings too.

Talk with your child about both the enjoyable and difficult aspects of friendships. Teach your child about helping people "save face" when they are angry or embarrassed. Group activities allow your child the chance to learn leadership skills.

It’s important to start talking about sex with your child. Ask your child if she has any questions about sex. If she doesn’t want to talk about sex, don’t force information on her. Once your child realizes that you feel comfortable discussing sex, she may ask you for information. Talk about the values you have about sexuality.

Behavior Control

• Use encouraging words when speaking with your child. Kids have a strong need to feel that they are valued by family and friends. Tell your child when you notice that she is on time or getting her work done on time.
• Tell your child every day that you love her.
• Try to keep rules to a minimum. Make rules that are fair and consistently enforced. At this age, your children's friends may be more important to her than her family. Your child may resist adult authority at times.
• Help your child develop a strong sense of right and wrong. Allow your child to make some choices for herself.
• Teach your child to apologize and help people she may have hurt.
• Don't make demands on your child that are above her ability.
• Don't let competition get out of hand. Teach your child to compete against herself and set personal best records.

Dental Care

• Your child should brush her teeth at least twice a day and floss once a day. Check your child's teeth after she has brushed.
• Your child should see a dentist every 6 months or as often as the dentist recommends.

Safety Tips

Accidents are the number one cause of deaths in children. Kids like to take risks at this age but are not well prepared to judge the dangers. Your child still needs close supervision at this age. You should model safe choices.

Falls

• Make sure windows are closed or have screens that cannot be pushed out.
• Don’t allow play in areas where a fall could lead to a serious injury.
• Don’t let your child play on a trampoline without adult supervision.

Car Safety

• Make sure that your child is buckled into an approved car safety seat. Children under 13 should always ride in the back seat.

Traffic and Bicycle Safety

• Watch your child when he crosses busy streets. Children at this age will generally look in both directions, but they do not reliably look over their shoulders for oncoming cars.
• If your child has a bicycle, make sure that it fits your child. Have your child stand over the bicycle. There should be 1 to 2 inches between your child and the top bar of a road bike, and 3 to 4 inches for a mountain bike.
• Your child and all family members should always ride with a bicycle helmet.
• Your child is not yet ready for riding on busy streets. However, start teaching your child about riding a bicycle in traffic. Use bike lanes on quiet streets or bike paths.

Water Safety

• Watch children and never leave them alone around water, including wading pools, swimming pools, spas or hot tubs, ponds, lakes, streams, or any other open water. Even children who are good swimmers need to be closely supervised around swimming pools and open water.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends swimming lessons for children over 4 years of age.

Strangers

• Discuss safety outside the home with your child.
• Make sure your child knows her address and phone number and how to contact you at work.
• Remind your child never to take anything from or go anywhere with a stranger.

Fires and Burns

• Install smoke detectors. Check your smoke detectors as often as recommended by the manufacturer or at least once a month to make sure they work. For all detectors that use batteries, replace batteries at least once a year or when they are low.
• Teach your child emergency phone numbers and to leave the house if fire breaks out.
• Keep a fire extinguisher in or near the kitchen.

Smoking

• Children who live in a house where someone smokes have more respiratory infections, like colds, flu, and throat infections. Their symptoms are also more severe and last longer than those of children who live in a smoke-free home.
• If you smoke, set a quit date and stop. Ask your healthcare provider for help in quitting. If you cannot quit, do NOT smoke in the house, car, or near children. It helps keep your child healthy and sets a good example.

Immunizations

Immunizations protect your child against several serious, life-threatening diseases. Your child should get a flu shot every year. Your child’s healthcare provider will let you know if your child is up to date on all recommended vaccinations. Be sure to bring your child's shot record to all visits with your provider.

Next Visit

A routine checkup every year is recommended.