Soon after your baby is born, your midwife hands you a book. 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. It goes with a series of free visits called Well Child Tamariki Ora, which run until your child’s B4 School Check at four.
This guide covers when each visit happens, what the nurse checks, what the My Health Book is for, who provides the service, and how to read the growth charts. It was checked against Health New Zealand, HealthEd and Whānau Āwhina Plunket sources on 9 November 2026. It is general information, not medical advice: for anything about your own child, your Well Child nurse or GP is the right person to ask.
Disclosure
I am a doctor, and I founded exora, a personal health record app. It appears near the end, and I am explicit there about what it is not. Everything before that applies whatever you use.
The short version
- Well Child Tamariki Ora is free for all families, for tamariki from soon after birth to five.
- Enrol as soon as your baby is born. Your midwife can help you choose a provider. Whānau Āwhina Plunket is the best known; in many areas Māori health providers and others offer it too.
- The first visit is at 4 to 6 weeks, and Health New Zealand lists visits up to 2 to 3 years, then the B4 School Check at 4.
- Take the My Health Book to every visit. If you lose it, you can download a copy free from HealthEd.
- Growth is checked against New Zealand’s own charts, which are in the book.
- You do not have to wait for a visit. PlunketLine is free, 24 hours a day, on 0800 933 922.
What Well Child Tamariki Ora is
Health New Zealand describes Well Child Tamariki Ora as a series of health visits and support “free to all families”, for tamariki from about 6 weeks to 5 years. The visits cover growth and development, immunisation status, teeth, sight and hearing, and how you, the parent, are getting on.
Health New Zealand’s visits page says to enrol as soon as your baby is born, and that your midwife can help you choose a service.
Who provides it
The best-known provider is Whānau Āwhina Plunket, which says its Well Child Tamariki Ora visits “are free for all families in New Zealand with children aged up to five years”. You do not need to be a New Zealand citizen or resident to enrol with Plunket, you can enrol at any age from birth to five, and you can self-enrol on its website if your midwife has not done it for you.
Plunket is not the only option. In many areas Māori health providers and other organisations deliver Well Child Tamariki Ora too. In Northland, for example, Health New Zealand lists Te Hiku Hauora, Hauora Hokianga and Ngāti Hine Health Trust among the providers, alongside Plunket. Ask your midwife which providers work in your area.
The visits, and what happens at each
Health New Zealand’s visits page (last updated 22 July 2026) lists seven Well Child visits, and the B4 School Check follows them at four. A Well Child nurse does the visits.
- 4 to 6 weeks (the first visit): feeding, growth (length, weight and head size), sight and hearing, development and immunisation status. The nurse also asks how you are coping.
- 8 to 10 weeks: growth, a hip check, sight and hearing, development and immunisation status. Topics include feeding, safe sleep and going back to work.
- 3 to 4 months: weight, head size, a hip check, sight and hearing, development and immunisation status. Topics include starting solid food and choosing daycare or preschool.
- 5 to 7 months: length, weight, head size, a hip check, teeth and gums, sight and hearing, development and immunisation status. Topics include solids, teething and safety.
- 9 to 12 months: length, weight, head size, how your baby moves, teeth and gums, sight and hearing, development and immunisation status, and what foods your baby is eating.
- 15 to 18 months: height and weight, how your child walks and moves, sight and hearing, teeth and gums, development and immunisation status.
- 2 to 3 years: growth and movement, a check that your child can see, hear and speak well, teeth and gums, development and immunisation status. The nurse will also talk with you about preschool, daycare and kōhanga reo.
At several visits the nurse also asks about your own health and wellbeing, including family violence. That is a routine question asked of every parent, not a judgement about you.
Plunket’s own appointments page gives slightly wider age bands for the same visits, and says extra appointments are available if you need them. If your baby was born early, ask your nurse how that affects the timing and the development checks.
The B4 School Check
The B4 School Check is “a free health and development check for your 4 year old”, and the last Well Child Tamariki Ora check. Health New Zealand says it is a good idea to have it soon after your child’s 4th birthday, so there is time to arrange any help before school starts.
What happens:
- You and your child see a nurse for about 45 minutes. The nurse explains the check and asks for your consent.
- The nurse checks height, weight and teeth, asks whether your child has been immunised, and asks about learning and development, strengths and difficulties, and health and wellbeing.
- A vision and hearing technician checks that your child can see and hear well. This may happen at a different time from the rest of the check.
- You will be asked to fill in questionnaires about your child’s development and wellbeing. If your child goes to a preschool, kindergarten or kōhanga reo, staff there may be asked too.
- Take the My Health Book. The nurse records your child’s growth and development in it.
If you have not heard from your local provider by the time your child turns four, Health New Zealand says to contact them to book; its site lists B4 School Check providers by region. In some regions Plunket does the check, and in others Health New Zealand or another local provider does. A copy of your child’s immunisation record can be useful here; our guide to getting immunisation records in New Zealand covers how to get one.
The My Health Book
The Well Child Tamariki Ora My Health Book is available from HealthEd. Your midwife gives it to you free, Health New Zealand asks you to bring it to every visit, and nurses record your child’s growth and development in it.
If you lose it, Health New Zealand says you can download a copy free from HealthEd. A downloaded copy will not have your child’s history in it, though. A photo of the filled-in pages after every visit takes a minute, and means losing the book is an inconvenience rather than a loss.
The book is not the official immunisation record. That is the Aotearoa Immunisation Register, which you can see through My Health Record.
Growth charts, and how to read them
The growth charts in the My Health Book are New Zealand’s own. Health New Zealand publishes the same growth charts for use by providers, covering birth to 5 years, and notes that they are also in the book given to parents. HealthEd says the book’s charts were originally based on the UK-WHO growth charts. There are separate charts for boys and girls, for weight, length or height, and head circumference.
The charts have centile lines. A child growing steadily along a low line is not necessarily a worry, while a sudden drop or jump across lines is worth raising with your nurse.
When not to wait for the next visit
The visits are spaced out, and worries are not. You do not need to wait for a scheduled visit to ask a question. Plunket says PlunketLine is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on 0800 933 922, to talk with a registered nurse. Your Well Child provider or GP can see you between visits, and Healthline is on 0800 611 116.
Where exora fits, and where it does not
exora does not replace the My Health Book or the visits, and it does not connect to any Well Child provider. Keep the book and take it to every visit. Where exora helps is keeping a copy of what matters, together with the rest of your child’s health record, on your phone. exora is free to start, with an optional membership.
- Photos of the pages. Upload a photo after each visit, and exora reads it for you, with a reading system built for medical records. Milestones it finds are matched to its checklist, and any it is unsure of are left for you to confirm.
- A milestone checklist from 2 months to 5 years, with corrected age for babies born early and a report you can share at the next visit.
- Growth charts with percentiles for height, weight, BMI and head circumference.
- 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.
One difference to be clear about. exora’s growth charts use the World Health Organization charts to age 2 and the US CDC charts from 2 to 20, and its milestone checklist is the US CDC one. These are not the New Zealand charts in the My Health Book, and not necessarily the checks your Well Child nurse uses, so a percentile or a milestone may not match what the nurse tells you. Where they differ, go with your nurse.
Where else it does not help, plainly:
- It does not assess your child. The checklist is a guide, and it is not medical advice. Any concern goes to your Well Child nurse or GP.
- It can misread. The reading is automated, so check anything that matters against the original page. That is why every fact links back to it.
- No connection to Health New Zealand. exora has no link to My Health Record, My Health Account, the Aotearoa Immunisation Register or any Health New Zealand system, and no New Zealand health-data certification.
- Your data is stored in Sydney, Australia, outside New Zealand. How we handle it is on our security page; read it before you upload anything.
There is more on the growth and development feature page. If you are also juggling records for an older child or a parent, my guide to family health records in New Zealand covers who can see what. And if you are travelling with little ones, see travelling overseas with a medical condition.
Sources
- Health New Zealand: Well Child Tamariki Ora (free to all families, age range)
- Health New Zealand: Well Child Tamariki Ora visits (the seven visits, enrolling, the My Health Book; last updated 22 July 2026)
- Health New Zealand: the B4 School Check (last updated 22 July 2026)
- Health New Zealand: B4 School Check providers
- Health New Zealand Northland: health services for our tamariki (Well Child Tamariki Ora providers)
- Health New Zealand: growth charts (charts for providers, 0 to 5 years, also in the My Health Book; last updated 21 May 2026)
- HealthEd: Well Child Tamariki Ora My Health Book (the book, and the basis of its growth charts)
- Whānau Āwhina Plunket: your appointments (free for all families, enrolling, PlunketLine)
Claims about Well Child Tamariki Ora, the B4 School Check, the My Health Book and growth charts are sourced to Health New Zealand, HealthEd and Whānau Āwhina Plunket, linked inline, and were checked on 9 November 2026. Schedules and books 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 Well Child nurse or GP. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy.
