This is the timetable and the paperwork: when each check happens, who arranges it, where it takes place, and what to do when one does not arrive. It is deliberately not a developmental milestone checklist. If you are wondering whether your child is doing what they should be at their age, that is a question for your public health nurse or your GP, and the HSE's own milestone pages are linked at the bottom.
The short version
- Cost
- Free, all of it, from 0 to 5 years, provided by the HSE
- First contact
- A home visit from your public health nurse in your first 3 days at home
- You book
- The GP checks at 2 weeks and 6 weeks
- The nurse arranges
- The development checks at 3 months, 9 to 11 months, 21 to 24 months and 46 to 48 months
- The last one
- Happens at school, in junior infants, and you sign a consent form
- If nothing arrives
- Reminders are posted, so tell your local health centre if you move
- Who provides it
- The HSE
The whole schedule, in order
Ages are the HSE's own. Exactly when a check lands inside its window depends on your local service.
- First 3 days at home. Home visit from your public health nurse. They weigh and examine your baby, carry out a newborn examination and a check-up for you, and talk through feeding, safe sleep and what is available locally.
- First week. The newborn bloodspot screening, the heel prick test. You are asked for consent, and it usually happens in your home.
- 2 weeks. GP. You make this appointment.
- 6 weeks. GP, for you and your baby in the same appointment. You make this one too.
- 2 months. First vaccines, at your GP or practice nurse. You are posted a letter about the vaccination schedule.
- 3 months. Development assessment, organised by your public health nurse, at the health centre.
- 6 months. Third round of vaccines at the GP.
- 9 to 11 months. Development check with your public health nurse.
- 12 and 13 months. Fourth and fifth rounds of vaccines at the GP.
- 21 to 24 months. Development check with your public health nurse. You may be asked to fill in a questionnaire beforehand.
- 46 to 48 months, that is 3 years 10 months to 4 years. Check at your local health centre.
- 4 to 5 years. At school, in junior infants, with the school public health nurse. You sign a consent form first.
Two of these are yours to book, and they are the early ones. The HSE's wording for the 2 week check is "you should make an appointment", and the same for 6 weeks. Everything from 3 months on is organised for you and arrives as a reminder. So the two most likely to be missed are the two that happen while you are least likely to be thinking about admin.
You do not have to arrange the first visit
There is no form and no registration for this. The visit comes to you, and how you gave birth changes who turns up first:
- Ordinarily. Your public health nurse visits during your first 3 days at home.
- On a DOMINO scheme. Your first home visits come from a midwife, who then hands your care over to the public health nurse.
- After a HSE home birth. Your community midwife notifies the public health nurse, who visits once you are discharged from the midwife's care.
After that first visit, the HSE's line is that your nurse "will continue to see you and your baby at intervals over the next 4 years".
If nobody has been in touch
This is the most common version of the question, and the answer is usually mundane rather than alarming.
Reminders are posted to your address. The HSE says you get reminders about your child's next check, and in the same breath: tell your local health centre if your address changes. If you moved during pregnancy or in the first months, which a lot of people do, that is the first thing to fix. It is a phone call to the health centre, not a form.
For the early GP checks, the HSE gives one explicit instruction worth acting on: tell your GP if you have not got an appointment by 6 weeks. And if you want the result of the heel prick test, contact your public health nurse, who is the person who holds it.
If you do not know who your public health nurse is, your local health centre does. Contact details for HSE services are on the HSE website, and HSE Live can point you to the right office.
What actually happens at a development check
Enough to know what you are walking into, without turning it into a checklist to measure your child against. Broadly, the nurse does a physical examination, weighs and measures, and looks at hearing, speech, movement, and social and play development, with the emphasis shifting as your child gets older. Dental health and growth monitoring are named at the 9 to 11 month and 21 to 24 month checks, and the 46 to 48 month check includes eyesight.
The visits are also a scheduled opportunity to raise anything yourself. The HSE frames them that way explicitly: use them to ask questions or talk about any concerns, about your child or about you.
If something comes up, the pathway is the same at every age. You may be asked to come back for another check, and your child may be referred to a specialist for further assessment. A repeat check is a normal step in the process rather than a verdict.
All of it is free, and the GP card adds two more
Every child gets free health and development checks from 0 to 5 years, provided by the HSE, and the childhood vaccines are free too. Separately, every child under 8 can have an under 8s GP visit card, which covers GP visits and includes free assessments at age 2 and age 5.
One thing that differs if you had private care
The 6 week appointment covers both of you, but if you had private antenatal care, your own postnatal check-up is done in the maternity hospital by your consultant rather than by your GP. Your baby's 6 week check is with the GP either way. Our guide to public, semi-private and private care covers the rest of that split.
Who decides
The HSE provides these checks and your public health nurse, GP practice nurse or GP carries them out. Any decision about your child's health, about a repeat check or about a referral is theirs, made with you. Nothing on this page is medical advice or an assessment of your child, and it is not a milestone checklist. If you are worried about your child's development at any point, you do not have to wait for the next scheduled check: contact your public health nurse or your GP.
Keep the rest of it in order
parentready puts your Irish parent admin in sequence, with the deadlines attached, so the things that only matter once are waiting for you at the right moment. Free, private, and on your device.
Official sources
- HSE: Your child's health and development checks (free from 0 to 5, who carries them out and where, reminders and keeping your address up to date, the under 8s card assessments at 2 and 5)
- HSE: Health and development checks: 0 to 6 months (the first 3 days home visit, what the nurse does, the heel prick test and its result, the 2 and 6 week GP checks, the private postnatal exception, the 2 month vaccines, the 3 month assessment and well baby clinics, DOMINO and home birth handover)
- HSE: Health and development checks: 6 to 12 months (the 9 to 11 month check, dental health and growth, repeat checks and referral)
- HSE: Health and development checks: 1 to 2 years (the 21 to 24 month check and the questionnaire, the 12 and 13 month vaccines)
- HSE: Health and development checks: 3 to 5 years (the 46 to 48 month check, and the junior infants check with the consent form)
- HSE: Health and development checks and milestones (the HSE's own milestone pages, for the developmental question this guide deliberately does not answer)
Facts checked against the official pages on 13 August 2026. This is general information about a schedule of services, not medical advice, not a developmental assessment and not a milestone checklist. The HSE provides these checks and, with your GP and public health nurse, makes every clinical decision. Ages are as published by the HSE and exact timing varies locally. Details can change; always confirm on the official pages linked above, and speak to your public health nurse or GP about your child's health.