Your child’s Blue Book: health checks, milestones and growth

Soon after your baby is born, someone hands you a book. In New South Wales it is blue, in Victoria it is green, in Queensland it is red. It is easy to put in a drawer with the hospital paperwork, and it is one of the most useful things you will be given in the next five years.

This guide covers what the book is called where you live, the health checks it follows, the developmental milestones it asks you to watch for, what to do if it goes missing, and where the digital versions are up to. It was checked against state and territory health department sources in November 2026. It is general information, not medical advice: for anything about your own child, your child and family health nurse or GP is the right person to ask.

Disclosure: I founded exora, a personal health record app, and it appears near the end. Everything before that applies whatever you use.

The short version

• Every state and territory has a book, with its own name and colour. It records your child’s checks, vaccinations, growth, milestones, illnesses and injuries.
• Take it to everything: health checks, vaccinations, the GP, hospital, and enrolment at childcare or school.
• The checks are free at your local child and family health service, and run from the first weeks to around school age.
• Fill in the parent questions before each check. Your answers are part of how the nurse or doctor sees how your child is developing.
• If you lose it, you can get a replacement. In NSW it costs $10.
• Victoria now has a digital version. I could not find an official digital Blue Book in NSW.

What the book is called where you live

Each state and territory publishes its own book. These are the ones I could confirm from the state or territory’s own health service:

• New South Wales: the Child Health Record (Blue Book). The current edition, dated September 2026, says it “builds on previous editions of the Personal Health Record (Blue Book), used in NSW since 1988”, so you may know it by the older name. NSW Health says: “All children born in NSW receive a free Child Health Record (Blue Book).” Children born elsewhere who now live in NSW can order one free.
• Victoria: the My Health, Learning and Development Record, commonly called the green book. The Better Health Channel says it is given to the parents or carers of every newborn child in Victoria.
• Queensland: the Personal Health Record, known as the red book. It was developed by Children’s Health Queensland “with statewide consultation”, and parents are asked to write in it too.
• Western Australia: the Purple Book. WA’s Child and Adolescent Health Service says it “helps you keep a record of your child’s health, growth and development” and your appointments with your child health nurse.
• South Australia: the Blue Book, My Health and Development Record, from the Child and Family Health Service (CaFHS).
• Northern Territory: My child health record, also called the Yellow Book or NT Child Health Record. NT Health describes it as the “Northern Territory Child Health and Immunisation Record from 0-5 years of age”.

If you are in the ACT or Tasmania, your book is also issued through your local child health service, but I could not confirm its current name from an official page. Your child and family health nurse can tell you.

What goes in it

The books differ in layout, but they cover much the same ground. NSW Health puts it simply: “It is a place to keep track of your child’s checks, vaccinations, milestones, illnesses, and injuries.” Both parents and health professionals write in it.

The NSW Blue Book, for example, has:

• Your child’s details and birth information, and family history questions.
• Growth charts for weight, length or height, head circumference and, from age 2, BMI. These use the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards for the first two years and the US CDC 2000 growth charts after that.
• A vaccination record, filled in by whoever gives each vaccine.
• Questions for you to answer before each check, including the milestone checklists.
• The health professional’s assessment at each check.
• A pocket at the back “to keep important papers about your child”.

On growth, the NSW book is reassuring in a way worth repeating: “Every child is different and grows in their own way. Health professionals track your child’s growth by seeing which percentile line they follow. What matters is that your child’s growth stays steady along their own lines.”

The scheduled health checks

Each state runs its own schedule, so the ages differ slightly. In every case the checks are free through your local child and family health service.

New South Wales

The NSW Blue Book lists checks at birth, then “8 checks they should get after they are born”: at 1 to 4 weeks, 6 to 8 weeks, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 years, 3 years and 4 years. It says child and family health centres “will do these checks for free through Medicare”, that a doctor can also do them, and that you don’t need a referral to use a centre. “Even if you think your child is developing well, you should take them for all their checks.”

Take the 12-month check as an example of what is recorded. The nurse or doctor notes your child’s weight, length and head circumference with their percentiles, checks their eyes, does a “lift the lip” check of their teeth and gums, looks at how they walk if they are walking, and records whether vaccinations are up to date. There is a space for an action plan. Before the visit, you answer the milestone checklist and a page of questions about hearing, eyesight, teeth and your home.

Victoria

Victoria’s Maternal and Child Health service has ten Key Ages and Stages visits: at birth (usually at home), 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 4 months, 8 months, 1 year, 18 months, 2 years and 3 and a half years.

Queensland

The Queensland red book has pages for a newborn examination by day 7, then health checks at about 0 to 4 weeks, 2 months (6 to 8 weeks), 4 months, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 and a half to 3 and a half years, and 4 to 5 years. Queensland’s book also uses a set of 12 questions for parents called PEDS-R, which your doctor or nurse talks through with you from the 6-month check.

Western Australia

Every child in WA gets five free child health appointments, which WA calls Purple Book appointments: at 0 to 14 days, 8 weeks, 4 months, 12 months and 2 years, with extra appointments if you need them. From 4 months, the nurse looks at five areas of development: communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving, and personal and social development.

The milestones parents watch for

The NSW Blue Book uses the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Learn the Signs. Act Early. checklists, with the language adapted for Australian English by the NSW Ministry of Health. You fill one in before each check from 6 to 8 weeks, ticking “Yes” or “Not yet” for each milestone. They are grouped into four areas: social and emotional; language and communication; cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving); and movement and physical development.

Here, word for word, is the 12-month list from the NSW Blue Book:

• Social and emotional: plays games with you, like pat-a-cake.
• Language and communication: waves “bye-bye”; calls a parent “muma” or “dada” or another special name; understands “no” (pauses briefly or stops when you say it).
• Cognitive: puts something in a container, like a block in a cup; looks for things they see you hide, like a toy under a blanket.
• Movement and physical development: pulls up to stand; walks, holding on to furniture; drinks from a cup without a lid, as you hold it; picks things up between thumb and pointer finger, like small bits of food.

A “Not yet” is not a diagnosis, and the book says so plainly: “Every child grows and develops in their own way.” What it asks is that you don’t wait if something worries you. It says to talk to your child and family health nurse or doctor if your child:

• “isn’t reaching milestones”
• “has lost skills they had before”
• or “you have other concerns”.

“You can do this even if it’s not time for a regular check.” The book is also honest that screening is not perfect: “Screening tests and checks are never 100% accurate. Sometimes, they might miss a problem, show one that isn’t there, or a problem might show up later. That’s why it’s important to keep track of your child’s milestones and take them for all their checks.”

If your baby was born early, the checks ask for their corrected age as well as their actual age. Ask your nurse which to use for the checklists.

What to do if you lose it

• NSW: “If your Blue Book is lost or damaged, you can order a replacement for $10.” Order from the Better Health Centre by email at nslhd-bhc@health.nsw.gov.au or on (02) 9887 5450.
• Victoria: contact your local Maternal and Child Health service for a replacement, or use the digital version through Service Victoria.
• Anywhere else: Pregnancy, Birth and Baby, the government’s pregnancy and parenting service, says: “If you lose the book, ask your doctor or child health nurse how to get a new one.”

A replacement will not have your child’s history in it, unless you have a copy. A photo of each page after every check takes a minute, and means losing the book is an inconvenience rather than a loss.

Is there a digital version?

Victoria: yes. The Better Health Channel says a digital green book is available through the Parent Portal, in the Service Victoria app or website, and that the paper and digital versions contain the same information. You can use either.

NSW: not yet, as far as I can find. NSW asked parents for feedback in 2023, and a new edition was published in September 2026. NSW Health’s own Blue Book page offers the new edition as a free printed book and a downloadable PDF, and does not mention an app or digital record. I could not find an official page saying a digital Blue Book is available, so I would not count on one.

And My Health Record is not a replacement either. Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is clear: “My Health Record doesn’t replace the infant health record book.”

Where exora fits

exora does not replace the book, and it does not connect to any state child health system or digital record. Keep the book and take it to every check. Where exora helps is keeping a copy of what matters, together with the rest of your child’s health record, on your phone.

• Photos of the pages. Upload a photo after each check. exora reads it, and milestones it finds are matched to the checklist, and any it is unsure of are left for you to confirm.
• A milestone checklist based on the same CDC Learn the Signs. Act Early. milestones the NSW Blue Book uses, from 2 months to 5 years, with corrected age for babies born early and a report you can share at the next check.
• Growth charts with percentiles for height, weight, BMI and head circumference, using the same WHO and CDC charts as the NSW book.
• Birth history, filled in from a discharge summary where it can be.
• One profile per child, each with their own record, alongside their immunisations and everything else.

It is not medical advice and it does not assess your child: the checklist is a guide, and any concern goes to your nurse or GP. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy. See growth and development in exora.

If you are also juggling records for an older child or a parent, our guide to managing family health records covers who can see what, including the change to your child’s My Health Record at 14.

Sources

• NSW Health: Child Health Record (Blue Book)
• NSW Health: Child Health Record, Blue Book, September 2026 edition (PDF)
• NSW Government: Have your say on how we can improve the Blue Book
• Better Health Channel (Victoria): Victorian child health record
• Children’s Health Queensland: Personal Health Record (red book) (PDF)
• WA Child and Adolescent Health Service: Child Health
• WA Child and Adolescent Health Service: What happens at each appointment
• WA Child and Adolescent Health Service: Purple Book
• South Australian Government: 2024 Blue Book ‘My Health and Development Record’ review
• NT Health Digital Library: My child health record
• Pregnancy, Birth and Baby: Infant health record

Checked against state and territory health sources on 5 November 2026. Books and schedules are revised from time to time, so the edition you were given may differ. This is general information, not medical advice. If you are worried about your child’s health or development, talk to your child and family health nurse or GP.