Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents

Book Synopsis: This essential resource provides key background information and recommendations for themes critical to healthy child development along with well-child supervision standards for 31 age-based visits—from Newborn through 21 Years.

What’s in the Bright Futures Guidelines, Fourth Edition?

• Twelve health promotion themes addressing · lifelong health for families and communities  NEW · family support · health for children and youth with special health care needs  NEW · healthy development · mental health · healthy weight · healthy nutrition · physical activity · oral health · healthy adolescent development · healthy and safe use of social media  NEW · safety and injury prevention
• 31 age-based health supervision visits—Newborn to 21 Years
• All the information and guidance that’s needed to give children optimal health outcomes
  • Context
  • Health Supervision
  • History
  • Surveillance of Development
  • Review of Systems
  • Observation of Parent-Child Interaction
  • Physical Examination
  • Medical Screening
  • Immunizations
  • Anticipatory Guidance

What’s NEW in the 4th Edition?

• Builds upon previous editions with new and updated content that reflects the latest research.
• Incorporates evidence-driven recommendations.
• Includes three new health promotion themes:
  • Promoting Lifelong Health for Families and Communities
  • Promoting Health for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs
  • Promoting the Healthy and Safe Use of Social Media
• Includes new screen time recommendations
• Provides greater focus on lifelong physical and mental health
• Weaves social determinants of health throughout the Visits, allowing health care professionals to consider social factors like food insecurity, violence, and drug use that may affect a child’s and family’s health
• Features updated Milestones of Development and Developmental Surveillance questions
• Provides new clinical content that informs health care professionals about the latest recommendations and provides guidance on how to implement them in practice:
  • Maternal depression screening, Safe sleep, Iron supplementation in breast fed infants, Fluoride varnish, Dyslipidemia blood screening
• Includes updates to several Adolescent screenings

With Bright Futures, health care professionals can accomplish 4 tasks in 18 minutes!

• Disease detection
• Disease prevention
• Health promotion
• Anticipatory guidance

What is Bright Futures?

• A set of theory-based, evidence-driven, and systems-oriented principles, strategies, and tools that health care professionals can use to improve the health and well-being of children through culturally appropriate interventions. Bright Futures addresses the current and emerging health promotion needs of families, clinical practices, communities, health systems, and policymakers.
• The Bright Futures Guidelines are the blueprint for health supervision visits for all children.
• Bright Futures is the health promotion and disease prevention part of the patient-centered medical home.

Who can use Bright Futures?

• Child health professionals and practice staff who directly provide primary care
• Parents and youth who participate in well-child visits
• Public Health Professionals
• Policymakers
• Pediatric Educators
• MD Residents

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