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

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