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Child and school health checks
Between the newborn examination and adulthood a child is measured, weighed, sight-tested, hearing-tested and checked for scoliosis a dozen times. It is a screening programme; it just does not look like one.
This page describes screening programmes; it is not a diagnosis, not a personal risk assessment and not a substitute for your own health service. Age bands are set nationally and change — the invitation you receive, and the body named on your country page, outrank anything written here. Screening is for people without symptoms: a new lump, blood you can see, a mole that has changed, unexplained weight loss or a sudden change in vision or hearing needs a clinician now, whatever a recent screening result said.
Where it is organised
Nowhere in this region as an invitation programme. That is a decision rather than an oversight, and the section below explains the reasoning. It also means nothing will arrive in the post: if this is something you want checked, you have to ask for it.
The programme nobody calls a programme
Adults think of screening as a letter that arrives at fifty. Children get far more of it, delivered through routine child health clinic visits and then the school nurse, and it is genuinely population screening: every child, at set ages, tested for things that produce no complaint from the child and no worry at home until they are well advanced. Growth is plotted rather than glanced at, because the shape of a growth curve over time says things that a single measurement cannot. Vision and hearing are checked at ages chosen so that treatment still works. Development is reviewed against milestones. Nothing about it feels like screening, which is exactly why it works.
Vision, and the reason for the age
The eye check before school is not looking for children who are struggling to read the board. It is looking for amblyopia — a lazy eye — where one eye sends a poorer image and the developing brain gradually stops using it. Detected in the preschool years it responds well to glasses or patching. Detected at ten it largely does not, because the visual cortex has finished the part of its development that depended on both eyes working. That single fact is why the check happens at four or five rather than when a child first complains, and why "he seems to see fine" is not a reason to skip it.
Growth, hearing, and the spine
Height and weight plotted over time pick up growth-hormone problems, coeliac disease, thyroid disease and feeding difficulties long before anyone at home would notice, because the change is in the trajectory and not in the child. Hearing is checked again in school years, since glue ear is common and a child who cannot hear consonants clearly is often described as inattentive rather than deaf. And school nurses look at the spine during the growth spurt, because adolescent scoliosis progresses fastest exactly then and is much easier to brace than to operate on.
What parents can usefully do
Turn up, first of all — the visits are unglamorous and easy to postpone, and they are the mechanism. Say what you have noticed, because a parent’s observation about hearing, speech or how a child uses their eyes is one of the most reliable signals in paediatrics and the nurse has three minutes where you have three years. Keep the record, whatever form it takes in your country, because a growth curve is only useful if the earlier points are still on it. And treat a referral from a school nurse as a real referral rather than routine paperwork.
Sources: National child health and school health services in the Nordic and Baltic countries · checked 2026-09-07
Preguntas frecuentes
Why is a child’s eyesight checked before school?
To find amblyopia — a lazy eye — while the brain can still be retrained. Detected at four or five it responds well to glasses or patching; detected at ten it largely does not, because the relevant visual development has finished.
Do child health checks need an invitation?
No. They are built into the child health clinic and school nurse schedule, which is why they are easy to postpone and easy to overlook. Turning up is the whole mechanism.
What is the point of measuring height and weight every time?
The trajectory matters more than any single measurement. A curve that drifts off its line picks up thyroid disease, coeliac disease, growth hormone problems and feeding difficulties long before anything is obvious at home.
Why do school nurses check the spine?
Because adolescent scoliosis progresses fastest during the growth spurt and is far easier to treat with a brace early than to correct surgically later. The curve is usually painless and invisible under clothes.
The rest of the surface
Breast cancer screening (mammography)
An X-ray of each breast, read by two radiologists, repeated every two years across a band of ages that starts at 40 in Sweden and 50 almost everywhere else. What it finds, what it misses and what a call-back means.
Cervical screening (HPV test)
Almost every country in the region has switched from looking for abnormal cells to looking for the virus that causes them. The test is better, so the gap between tests is longer — and in several countries you can now take the sample yourself.
Bowel cancer screening (stool test)
A sample from one bowel movement, taken at home and posted. It is the only screening programme in the region that routinely prevents cancers rather than only finding them early — because the follow-up removes the polyp.
Prostate screening (PSA)
Latvia and Lithuania fund PSA testing for men in their fifties and sixties. Sweden assessed the same evidence and recommends against an organised programme. Here is what the trials actually found.
Lung cancer screening (low-dose CT)
The trials are positive and the European recommendation asks countries to build programmes stepwise. In this region it is still pilots rather than invitations — but the eligibility rule is worth knowing.
What screening can and cannot do
Overdiagnosis, false positives, interval cases and lead-time bias — the four ideas behind every disagreement between countries.
All 27 screening pagesIf the result is not normal
The record that makes the appointment shorter
TempoLife keeps weight, blood pressure, sleep and symptoms in one place, so the questions you get asked at a screening appointment already have answers.