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Be prepared before you visit your doctor with your baby at her age of twelve months. Here are quick pointers to remember.

When you take your nine months old baby to the doctor, you should be prepared about the checkup. Here are a few pointers to remember.

Your baby now crawls around the house; enjoys complementary feeds and has settled into a daily schedule. You probably are thinking about celebrating your baby’s 1st birthday with great enthusiasm.

The age your baby gets teeth varies greatly from child to child. Although rare, your baby may even have a tooth or two at birth. For some babies teeth start to appear around four months, occasionally some babies won’t have any until after the 12-month mark, but for most, baby teeth begin erupting anywhere from six to nine months of age.

Many illnesses in infancy are caused by either viral or bacterial infections and your doctor can help establish which type of infection your baby has and how to possibly treat them. It is important to help your baby fight infections on their own where possible.

Fortunately parents do not have daily reminders of the chronic debilitation and deaths caused by diseases such as whooping cough, polio, measles and diphtheria. So as a parent, you may question whether there is a need to immunise your child.

It is important to know what to expect in a nappy so you can then know when your baby’s poo is abnormal and may need healthcare professional advice. Diarrhoea is characterised by very frequent, liquid stools and may be the result of an illness or infection.

There is likely to be slight differences in poo between babies depending on their age and what food or milk is being ingested (breast, infant formula, solids or a combination). While infrequent bowel motions may be an indication of constipation, it is not always the case in infants.

Your baby’s poo lets you know how well their digestive system is performing, and what is ‘normal’ is a source of common confusion for most parents. Basically, what goes in one end will determine what comes out the other! If you are aware of what normal baby poo looks like, you will then know when something is not normal and may need further attention.