Shortly before or after your baby is born, someone hands you a book with a red cover. It is easy to put it in a drawer with the hospital paperwork. It is one of the most useful things you will be given in the next five years.
This guide covers what the red book is, the health and development reviews it follows, how the schedule differs in Scotland and Wales, what to do if it goes missing, and where the digital version is up to. It is general information, not medical advice: for anything about your own child, your health visitor or GP is the right person to ask.
Disclosure
I am a doctor, and I founded exora, a personal health record app. It appears once, near the end. Everything before that applies whatever you use.
The short version
- The red book is your child’s personal child health record. It records growth, vaccinations, reviews and other important information, and you can add to it yourself.
- Take it to everything: the baby clinic, the GP, vaccinations and health visitor reviews.
- In England there are 5 universal reviews by a health visitor, from pregnancy to around 2 and a half, plus a physical examination at 6 to 8 weeks, usually by a GP.
- Scotland and Wales run their own programmes, with more contacts and later reviews.
- If you lose it, ask your health visitor or health centre for a new one.
- There is no national digital red book yet. Some areas offer one, and a new digital version is being explored.
What the red book is
Its proper name is the Personal Child Health Record, or PCHR. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) describes it as a national standard health and development record given to parents and carers at a child’s birth. Its content and format are overseen by a multi-disciplinary group hosted by the RCPCH.
The NHS website explains what it is for. The people you see at the baby clinic and GP use it to record your child’s weight and height, vaccinations and other important information. And it is not only theirs to write in:
- You can add information yourself, such as any illnesses or accidents your child has, or any medicines they take.
- Keep the developmental milestones section up to date. The NHS website suggests it, and it makes each review easier.
- Take it with you every time you visit the baby clinic or GP.
In England, the government’s guidance to health visitors says each review should include completion of the personal child health record, to support shared information, parental engagement and continuity of care. So if you bring it, it should be filled in.
Growth charts and centiles
Your child’s weight, length and head size are plotted on growth charts in the book. The UK uses the UK-WHO growth charts, and the RCPCH’s guidance for parents explains how to read them:
- The curved lines are centile lines, based on measurements from many children. They show how one child compares with others of the same age and sex.
- Anywhere within the centile lines is considered normal.
- There are no centile lines between birth and two weeks, because babies’ weight patterns are so individual at that age. If a baby loses 10% or more of their weight, they should be examined and their feeding reviewed.
The red book itself has a section explaining what your child’s chart will look like. How often should your baby be weighed? The NHS website says that if they are gaining weight and nobody has concerns, no more than once a month up to 6 months, once every 2 months from 6 to 12 months, and once every 3 months after that.
The early checks
Before the health visitor reviews start, there are checks soon after birth. From the NHS website:
- A physical examination within 72 hours of birth. A health professional usually checks your baby’s eyes, heart, hips and, for boys, testicles.
- The blood spot (heel prick) test, at between 5 and 8 days old, usually done by the midwife on day 5. It screens for several rare conditions, including cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease.
- A newborn hearing test, soon after birth.
The health visitor reviews in England
In England these reviews are part of the Healthy Child Programme, which local authorities are responsible for delivering. The government’s guidance, updated in March 2026, says a minimum of 5 health and development reviews must be offered, at 5 stages:
- Antenatal review, from 28 weeks of pregnancy.
- New birth review, when your baby is between 1 and 14 days old. The NHS website says it usually happens within 10 to 14 days of the birth.
- 6 to 8 week review.
- 12-month review, between 9 and 15 months.
- 2 to 2 and a half year review, between 24 and 30 months.
The guidance says the antenatal, new birth and 6 to 8 week reviews should be done face to face in your home by a health visitor. The later ones can be in a clinic, a family hub or another community setting, depending on what suits your family. A review done only by phone, video or a posted questionnaire does not count as one of the five.
Extra reviews can be offered when a family needs them, for example at around 3 months, 6 months or 3 and a half years. These are not part of the statutory offer.
The 6 to 8 week check
This is the one most parents know by name, and it is really two appointments. The government guidance describes it as a 2-stage assessment: the GP conducts a full physical examination, and the health visitor provides health promotion, developmental checks and support for the family. It suggests the two are ideally not on the same day, so that neither is rushed.
At the GP’s examination, the NHS website says your baby’s eyes, heart, hips and, for boys, testicles are checked, and their weight, length and head circumference are measured. The GP or health visitor will talk to you about vaccinations, and ask how you have been feeling, emotionally and physically, since the birth. That last part matters: it is a check on you as well as your baby.
The questionnaire before later reviews
Before the 9 to 12 month and 2-year reviews, your health visiting team will send you a questionnaire called the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, or ASQ-3. The NHS website says it lets you try out some of the activities with your baby at home, where they are comfortable, and not to worry if you cannot fill in all of it: a health visitor will help.
The government guidance is clear that the questionnaire is one part of the review, not the review itself. It should be discussed with you, in the context of your child’s wider health and development.
If your baby was born early, the NHS website says their developmental age is calculated from your original due date, not their birth date, until they are 2. Ask your health visitor how that applies to the questionnaire.
If you are worried about your child between reviews, you do not have to wait. The NHS website says you can contact a health visitor or GP, or go to your local baby clinic, at any time.
Scotland and Wales
The red book is used across the UK, but the schedule of contacts is set by each nation.
Scotland has the Universal Health Visiting Pathway. The Scottish Government says that between pre-birth and a child turning 5, families are entitled to 11 home visits, three of which include a formal review of the family and child’s health. Those formal reviews happen when the child is between 13 and 15 months, 27 and 30 months, and 4 and 5 years.
Wales has the Healthy Child Wales Programme, which the Welsh Government describes as a universal health programme for all families with children aged 0 to 7, with nine contact points.
For Northern Ireland, I could not confirm the current schedule from an official page. Your health visitor can tell you what to expect.
Vaccinations in the red book
The red book has pages for vaccinations, filled in by whoever gives each one. The NHS website’s vaccination schedule sets out when each vaccine is offered in England. The first doses are at 8 weeks, with more at 12 weeks, 16 weeks, 1 year and 18 months, and a pre-school booster at 3 years and 4 months.
The schedule changes from time to time. The current version includes the MMRV vaccine and an 18-month appointment, with doses that depend on your child’s date of birth, so check the website rather than an older printout. If you think your child has missed a vaccine, the NHS website says to contact your GP surgery: most can still be caught up.
I will not tell you which vaccines your child needs: that is for your GP, practice nurse or health visitor. Our guide to getting a vaccination record in the UK covers where else your child’s vaccinations are recorded, which helps if the red book pages are incomplete.
What to do if you lose it
The RCPCH does not supply paper copies. It says that if you have lost the book or need a new copy, ask your local health visitor or health centre.
A new book will not have your child’s history in it. For vaccinations, NHS inform in Scotland says that if you do not have a red book, or it has gone missing, you can check with your local NHS immunisation team. In England, the GP record and your area’s Child Health Information Service hold vaccination records too.
Simplest of all: take a photo of each page you or a health professional fills in, after every check. It takes a minute, and it turns losing the book into an inconvenience rather than a loss.
Is there a digital red book?
In some areas, yes. The eRedbook is a digital red book made in partnership with the NHS. It stores immunisations, health reviews and screening tests and tracks growth, and its own site says that in some areas you will also get information from local health organisations. It is not available everywhere, so ask your health visitor whether your area uses it.
Nationally, not yet. In August 2026 the RCPCH announced an agreement with Harlow Printing to explore developing a digital Personal Child Health Record: a mobile app for parents and carers alongside a web application for health professionals. It would sit alongside the printed book, not replace it. The RCPCH says development is expected to take around nine months from when it starts, with pilots to be agreed before any public launch. So for now, the paper book is the one to keep.
If you have family and carer access to your child’s GP record in the NHS App, you can see their vaccinations there. That is the GP record, which is separate from the red book. Our guide to family health records in the UK covers how that access works.
Where exora fits, and where it does not
exora does not replace the red book. 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. exora is free to start, with an optional membership.
- Photos of the pages. Upload a photo after each check, and exora reads it for you, with a reading system built for medical records. 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 US CDC’s Learn the Signs. Act Early. milestones, from 2 months to 5 years, with corrected age for babies born early and a report you can share at the next review.
- Growth charts with percentiles for height, weight, BMI and head circumference. These use WHO and CDC charts, not the UK-WHO charts in the red book, so the red book’s chart is the one your health visitor goes by.
- Vaccinations read into one record, with dates, alongside everything else. The schedule can compare them with the UK’s national schedule.
- One profile per child, each with their own record.
There is more on the growth and development feature page.
Where it does not help, plainly:
- It is not the red book or the eRedbook. It does not connect to them, or to any health visiting service.
- It can misread. The reading is automated, so check anything that matters against the original page.
- No NHS connection. exora has no link to the NHS App, your GP’s system or any NHS service, and no NHS approval or UK health-data certification.
- Your data is stored in Sydney, Australia, outside the UK. How we handle it is on our security page; read it before you upload anything about your child.
- It is not medical advice and it does not assess your child. The checklist is a guide. Any concern goes to your health visitor or GP.
Sources
- NHS website: your baby’s health and development reviews (red book, early checks, review ages, 6 to 8 week examination, ASQ-3, premature babies, weighing)
- GOV.UK: delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, part 2, health visiting ages 0 to 5 (updated 12 March 2026; the 5 statutory reviews, settings, 2-stage 6 to 8 week review, completing the PCHR)
- RCPCH: Personal Child Health Record (what it is, lost copies)
- RCPCH: growth charts, information for parents and carers (UK-WHO charts, centiles)
- RCPCH: agreement to explore a digital future for the Red Book (27 August 2026)
- eRedbook
- NHS website: NHS vaccinations and when to have them
- Scottish Government: universal health visiting service
- Welsh Government: Healthy Child Wales Programme, January to March 2026
- NHS inform: your vaccination history
Claims about the red book, reviews and schedules are sourced to the NHS website, GOV.UK, the RCPCH, the Scottish and Welsh Governments and NHS inform, linked inline, and were checked on 9 November 2026. Books, programmes 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 health visitor or GP. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy.
