Health Services for Children

  • Royal New Zealand Plunket Society (Well Child Service) is one Health Service easily accessible and available to you. Plunket is a non-profit organisation that is community owned and governed. They aim to provide a caring, professional well child and family/whanua service. Plunket services are free to New Zealand families with children from birth to 5 years old. We offer you information, support and developmental assessments at varying stages between birth and 5 years. Plunket provides home visits for babies in the early weeks, and then clinic or home visits for children up to 5 years old. Visits can also take place at preschools, marae and other community facilities. In some areas, extra support is available from staff at Plunket Karitane family centres. And if you need support in between visits, please feel free to contact Plunket staff or phone PlunketLine on 0800 933 922.
  • General Practitioners – Doctor (Well Child Service) – A general practitioner or GP is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and co-morbidities. They can be accessed through you local Doctor’s office or Clinic.
  • Barnardos (General Health Service) -  Barnardos New Zealand provides child and family services in communities around the country. The services offered vary from area to area. Barnardos provides safe, supported and ongoing supervised conatct for childre and their non day to day parent or other people significant to the child in child-friendly locations throughout New Zealand. Barnardos can be accessed through their website www.barnardos.org.nz or through their various hotlines: 0800 4 BARNARDOS – 0800 KIDSTART – 0800 4 PARENT – 0800 WHATSUP.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

  1. Your baby’s first teeth are important to help them speak and eat properly. They also guide the development on the second teeth. So it is important that the caregivers take care of their own teeth, as children can catch the bacteria that cause decay from their parents.

 

  1. Falling asleep with a bottle of juice of milk in their mouth leave the teeth covered in sugar and fruit acids while they sleep. Sipping small amounts of fruit juice, fizzy drinks or sugary cordial drinks from a bottle or sipper cup throughout the day – this causes the teeth to be bathed in acids and sugar over a long time. So it is important for a caregiver/parent to check their child’s teeth regularly, and give the teeth a rest. Giving the child’s teeth a rest will allow the saliva to harden, protecting the teeth in between eating and drinking.

 

  1. As a caregiver you are responsible for the health and safety of you child, your choices impact highly on your children. So if you smoke or drink and are choosing not to stop, as a caregiver you need to keep those as faraway from your children as possible. If you want to drink you keep it well away and out of reach  from your children as it can be seriously harmful to them. If you want to smoke you smoke outside and whatever you do do not smoke in the car whilst your child is in there too, as this could also be extremely harmful to you children, not just now but also later in life.

 

  1. Tea, coffee or cola drinks should not be given to children as they reduce the amount of iron the body absorbs and can make children anaemic. So as a caregiver you need to ensure, in the best interest of your child, that they do get enough iron.