Lifetime Health Record

The Lifetime Health Record can only be ordered by providers giving healthcare to children. To order the Lifetime Health Record, call the Health Department Call Center at 1 866-NYCDOH1 (866-692-3641) . Parents who need to replace a lost Record should contact their child's provider.

Why does your child need a Lifetime Health Record?

Every new baby born in New York City gets a Lifetime Health Record. The Record tells you, the parent, about your baby's immunizations, health care visits and growth, until he/she is six years old.

The Record gives every doctor or nurse who takes care of your child important information about your child's health from birth.

Your child will need the Health Record at many times: when starting day care, grade school, high school, college or the armed forces, when starting a new job, or when traveling outside the United States.

What goes in the Record when your child is born?

Before your baby leaves the hospital, the doctor or nurse there should write about your baby's birth in the Record. The doctor or nurse should also write in the date for your baby's first health care visit after you leave the hospital.

You should fill in your baby's name, date of birth, your name, and your address on the cover page. When you have a photo of your child, put it on the front cover in the box that says "Child's Photo".

When you get home, put this sheet of paper with the Record, and find a safe place to keep it where it will be easy to find.

What goes in the Record when your child goes for health care?

Ask the doctor or nurse who takes care of your child to write about the visit in the Record and explain the results to you. Any special health problems that your child has should be written about in the card by the doctor or nurse.

At every visit the doctor or nurse should mark your child's height and weight measurements on the "weight for age" and "height for age" growth charts. This lets you see how your child grows. You can compare it to the growth of most children in the United States, whose measurements would be marked between the two dotted lines on these growth charts.

Starting at birth, your child should get immunizations to protect his or her health. The immunizations and the dates they are given should be written in the Record by the doctor or nurse who gives them to your child.

When using the NYC Department of Health's issued Lifetime Health Record, mark a check over the arrow when your child first starts to show the behavior written near the arrow. If your child is not showing a behavior at the age you expect, talk to a doctor or nurse about it at your next health care visit.

Remember...bring the Record to every health care visit your child makes, for illness or for routine check-ups, for illness or if you need to go to the Emergency Room

For more information on where your child can be vaccinated, call 311.