After you go home
The Six-Week Check
The six-week paediatric review — offered to every baby in our care. What's assessed, why the timing matters, and how to book.
Last reviewed
Every baby needs a six-week check. It can be with your family GP or with us as your baby’s paediatrician; the important thing is that it happens. For babies in our care we offer a six-week paediatric review (the 6-week check), covered by your obstetrician’s referral and billed on the day with the Medicare rebate. Book through the rooms.
Why the 6-week check matters
A newborn is not fully signed off at hospital discharge. The first weeks are still part of the transition to life outside the womb, and six weeks is when that transition can properly be called complete. By then, weight and feeding have settled into a pattern, or shown that they need help. Jaundice should be long gone. The hips are due to be examined again. Heart murmurs that could not be heard at birth can appear in these weeks, so we listen again. And most babies have started to smile, the first clear developmental step.
The check is for parents too: how feeding is really going, how you are sleeping and coping, and where to get support if you need it. Six weeks is also the peak of normal newborn crying — the unsettled peak explains what to expect.
Some findings simply cannot be picked up in hospital (some things only appear over time). The 6-week check is timed for when they can.
What’s assessed
- Growth: weight, length and head circumference on the curves, with the birth and discharge measurements for context
- Feeding: how it is actually going, and a plan where it isn’t
- Heart: listening for murmurs that can appear after the newborn period
- Hips: the repeat examination in the 6 to 8 week window, plus any ultrasound results
- Eyes: the red reflex check
- Early development: social smiles, fixing and following, head control
- Test results: any investigations ordered — thyroid, hip ultrasound, renal or others — followed up and reviewed with you
- Anything from your stay: jaundice resolved, and findings flagged in hospital rechecked
- How you are going: sleep, mood and support for parents; the check is for you as well
- Your questions: bring the list
Who does the check
The six-week check can be done by your family GP or by us. What matters most is that your baby has one, so make the booking early either way.
The paediatric review is the right fit when there is something to follow through: a Special Care admission, growth concerns, an abnormality found antenatally, jaundice, a murmur, the hips, feeding, or investigations still to be followed up. It is also the right place to debrief the birth or a Special Care stay, or to talk through any concern you have about your baby. For a baby whose stay was straightforward, your GP’s 6–8-week visit covers the check and the immunisations together.
Immunisations are not given at our review. The 6–8-week vaccines happen at your GP or council immunisation session — keep that appointment whichever way you do the check. Your MCH nurse continues the schedule of visits either way, and we coordinate with both.
Booking and fees
- Book through the rooms: contact page, (03) 9007 2099 or admin@neopaeds.au. Appointments can book out weeks ahead, so book soon after you get home.
- Referral: within the first 3 months your obstetrician’s referral is still current. You don’t need anything new.
- Fee: usually item 116: billed $340, Medicare rebate $77.95, a gap of $262 (about $52 once past the Medicare Safety Net). Full detail on the clinic fees page.
- Earlier review: where jaundice, weight, feeding or a hospital finding needs a closer look sooner, we’ll tell you before you go home.
Book the six-week check
Call (03) 9007 2099 (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm) or email admin@neopaeds.au — have your baby's name and date of birth ready.