Rehab Medical

Health information

Child health

Most of childhood is coughs, colds, tummy upsets and rashes that need reassurance and a safety net rather than treatment. The job of a family doctor is to tell those apart from the few that matter, to keep growth and development on track, and to keep the vaccination card complete. We weigh and measure at every visit, because a growth line that flattens is often the first sign of a problem no one has mentioned yet.

When it cannot wait

Signs that mean today

These are not reasons to book an appointment. They are reasons to be seen now, or to call an ambulance on 123.

  • A baby under three months with a temperature of 38°C or more, or any child with a rash that does not fade under pressure — emergency, now.
  • Fast breathing, the chest pulling in with each breath, grunting, or blue lips.
  • A child who will not drink, has had no wet nappy for eight hours, has a sunken soft spot, or is floppy and hard to wake.
  • A fit, repeated vomiting with a headache, a swollen painful joint, or green vomit in a baby.

When to book

Reasons to be seen

  • Your child is not gaining weight as expected, or has crossed downwards through the growth lines.
  • You are worried about speech, walking, hearing or how they play with other children — early is always better here, and being wrong costs nothing.
  • There is pallor, tiredness or a poor appetite — anaemia is common in Egyptian children and is a simple test with a simple treatment.
  • The vaccination card has gaps, or you have moved and lost track of what has been given.

What a visit looks like

What a visit for this involves

  • 25–30 minutesClinic visitAt the clinic, unhurried
  • 20 minutesVideo consultationFrom anywhere in Egypt
  • 15 minutesFollow-upAfter a recent visit, same complaint

In the room

What the doctor checks

  1. Weight, length or height, and head circumference in the under-twos, all plotted on the growth chart — a line over time, not one measurement.
  2. Development checked against what a child that age should be doing, and hearing and vision asked about specifically rather than assumed.
  3. The vaccination card read properly and any missed dose caught up — Egypt's programme is free at government units and we will tell you exactly what is outstanding.
  4. A full examination with the child undressed enough to actually see them — chest, abdomen, skin, hips in babies, and the throat and ears last, because that is the bit they mind.

Come prepared

What to bring

  • The vaccination card. If it is lost, bring whatever you have — a photo, a clinic slip, the school record.
  • A video on your phone of anything that worries you and never happens in the clinic — a strange movement, a cough, a rash that comes and goes.
  • The nursery or school's note, if they were the ones who raised the concern.

Next step

Tell us what's happening and we'll arrange the right kind of visit.

Message the clinic on WhatsApp. We reply with the times that are free and what the visit costs, before you agree to anything.

Book on WhatsApp

At home

Between visits

  • For diarrhoea, oral rehydration salts are the treatment — not antibiotics, and not anti-diarrhoeal medicines, which are unsafe in small children.
  • Keep a note of what you asked and what we said. Parents leave with more than they can hold, and the next visit goes better when we start from the same page.
  • Never give an adult medicine cut in half to a child, and never a leftover antibiotic. Doses in children are by weight and change month to month.

Before you write

Questions patients ask

Written and clinically reviewed by Dr. Rehab Ahmed, MBBCh, Ain Shams University · Diploma in Family Medicine. Last reviewed August 2026.

What this page is based on

This page is general information written by the practice. It is not a diagnosis and does not replace seeing a doctor. In an emergency, call 123.

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