The baby check is a methodical examination of the baby in the first few days of life. Every health professional doing checks has a slightly different method; the author's scheme is to start at the arms, then work from the head down. The suggestion is that this scheme may serve as a template.

Note that although the baby check becomes very routine for the health professional, some parents find it quite stressful. To improve this it can be helpful to make positive noises throughout the examination, obviously avoiding negative noises if there are any minor findings.

Some of the abnormal findings and consequenses thereof have been included in the menus below the sections. Note that these menus are not intended to be exhaustive; a more exhaustive menu would include most of neonatology.