Keep your hand firmly and reassuringly over the forehead- checking for the temperature. Move the hand up to palpate the anterior fontanelle, if it is open. With the right hand, retract the lower and then the upper eyelid, to inspect the eyes for pallor, icterus, Biltot’s spots or eye discharge. Take a torch and inspect the tongue and the throat. In an infant, throat is best seen when it cries. Inspect both ears for discharge and tender-ness (over the external ear on pulling the pinna, and over the mastoid). Now, with both hands, palpate the neck for lymph nodes. Then flex the neck and look for neck stiffness. Inspect the chest for respiratory movements, and Rickety rosary or deformities. Palpate the apex beat. Auscultate heart sounds & respiratory sounds. (If the child is crying, auscultate respiratory sounds during the inspiration that follows the cry) Palpate the abdomen for Live and spleen. (remember that in infants, the liver is normally palpable) Inspect the limbs for wrist widening, deformities, and nails.
