How to organise your baby's health records

In the first year alone, most babies generate a hospital discharge, a dozen vaccination entries, several growth checks, a few prescriptions and at least one blood test. Every one of those is useful later — at a new doctor, in an emergency, for school admission, or when a specialist asks "has this happened before?" — and most families can't find half of them when it matters.

What to keep

From birth

• The hospital discharge summary. Birth weight, gestation, type of delivery, any NICU stay, jaundice treatment, newborn screening and hearing test results, blood group if tested. Doctors ask about these for years.
• The birth certificate (you'll need it for school and passports, but keep a copy with the health records too).

Ongoing

• The vaccination card — the single most asked-for document. Photograph it after every visit. See the IAP vaccination chart.
• Growth measurements — weight, length and head circumference with dates, ideally plotted on WHO centile charts.
• Prescriptions — including what it was for and whether it worked.
• Lab reports and scans — blood tests, urine tests, ultrasounds, X-rays.
• Specialist letters and referrals.

The one-page summary

Keep a short, current list you can hand to any doctor: allergies (including drug allergies), long-term conditions, current medicines and doses, significant past illnesses or hospital stays, and your usual paediatrician's name and number.

How to organise it

1. Photograph paper on the day you get it. Paper goes missing; a dated photo doesn't.
2. Keep it in one place. Not split across WhatsApp, email, the camera roll and a drawer.
3. Date and label everything — "2026-03-14 CBC, fever" beats "IMG_4412".
4. Make it shareable with your partner, so either of you can answer the doctor.
5. Keep the originals in one folder at home, especially the vaccination card.

What to bring to every appointment

• The vaccination card (or a clear photo of it).
• The one-page summary.
• For an illness visit: when it started, temperatures with times, medicines given with times and doses, feeds and wet nappies.
• Your questions for the paediatrician, written down.

Doing it in Araia

Araia is built to be that one place:

• Reports: upload a photo or PDF of a lab report, prescription or doctor's note — Araia reads it, pulls the values onto your charts and turns a prescription into a medicine schedule.
• Vaccinations: the IAP schedule as real dates, with a photo of each record attached as you mark doses done.
• Growth: every measurement on WHO centiles.
• Doctors and appointments: your paediatrician's details, visit reminders, and a question list that fills itself from symptoms you log.
• Sharing: both parents see the same record; export it to Excel or PDF, or let your doctor view it through the clinician portal.

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information for Indian parents, written from published paediatric guidance (IAP, WHO, AAP). It is not medical advice and cannot account for your baby specifically. Anything that worries you — feeding, breathing, fever, weight, a rash — is a call to your paediatrician, not a search. In an emergency, go to a hospital.