**1. Introduction**

The newborn baby check is often the first encounter a General Practitioner (GP) has with an infant and their family. It is an excellent opportunity to review the journey the family has taken antenatally, at the time of delivery and the weeks that have followed. It is also a time to detect and identify conditions that can be managed in their early stages. If untreated, some conditions can result in major morbidity.

At the time of birth and discharge from hospital, the newborn will often have an examination performed [1]. Following this period, the family is introduced to their local maternal child health nurse who monitors the infant and discusses important topics such as feeding, growth, family supports and maternal and paternal mental health. Provided no concerns have been raised, the family will only need to present for the first time to the doctor at around 6–8 weeks. For this reason, the newborn examination we refer to in this chapter is one taken around this time.

Although the routine examination performed prior to a child being discharged from hospital is thorough, conditions can evolve or go unnoticed. It is important that we do not solely rely on the discharge check but it can serve as a good reference if the nurse or doctor raised a concern at the time.
