The short answer: The Road to Health booklet is your child's main health record in South Africa: vaccines, growth, illnesses and treatment. It is a paper booklet, so it gets left at home, damaged or lost. Studies have found around one in five caregivers arriving at clinic without it, and about one in eight children with no card at all.
Every parent knows the drawer. The one with the birth certificate, the clinic card, the booklet with the fraying cover and the stamps from every vaccine. It works perfectly, until the morning you rush out of the house with a feverish child and leave it behind.
Why the booklet matters
The booklet is how the next nurse knows which vaccines your child has had, whether they are growing well, and what they have been treated for. Without it, a vaccine might be missed or repeated, and a growth problem can go unnoticed.
How often it goes missing
In a 2021 survey of 278 children under five in four low-income areas of Kuils River, Cape Town, 11.9% had no card, or a card that was lost or missing. In a Western Cape exit survey of caregivers, 81.3% had brought the booklet to the consultation, which means almost one in five had not.
Our calculation
At a clinic that sees 40 children a day, 7 or 8 arrive without their booklet.
Almost one in five caregivers in the Western Cape survey came to the clinic without it. For each of those children, the nurse works without their vaccine and growth history.
Even when the booklet is there, it is not always filled in. In a study across 140 Western Cape facilities, half of the health workers had not recorded whether children had been dewormed.
How to keep it safe
- One place, always. A plastic sleeve in the same bag you take to every visit.
- Photograph every page. After every visit, so a lost booklet is not a lost history.
- Check it before you leave. Ask the nurse to fill in today's visit while you are there.
- Keep a copy for each child. And one for anyone else who takes them to the clinic.
How Kindredd helps
With Kindredd Patient Premium, you can keep your children's records on your phone alongside your own: vaccinations, illnesses, results and photos of every booklet page. If the booklet is left behind, its story is still with you.
You can share your child's record with the nurse using a QR code, for as long as you choose, and other family members who look after them can be given access too.
Questions people ask
What is the Road to Health booklet?
The Road to Health booklet is South Africa's child health record, given at birth. It records vaccinations, growth, development, illnesses and treatment up to the age of five and beyond.
What do I do if I lose my child's Road to Health booklet?
Ask your clinic for a new booklet and for the vaccines and visits they have on record to be copied in. Photos of the old pages help.
Can I keep my child's vaccination record on my phone?
Yes. Photograph every page of the booklet after each visit, or use a health records app that keeps children's records with yours.
Know a parent with a drawer full of clinic cards? Send them this.
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Sources
- Road to Health booklet use in four low-income areas of Kuils River, Cape Town (2021). South African Journal of Child Health. ajol.info
- Missed opportunities for immunisation: Western Cape caregiver exit survey. Stellenbosch University. su.ac.za
- Completeness of Road to Health booklet recording across 140 Western Cape facilities. Health SA Gesondheid. scielo.org.za
Photo: Shixart1985, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0.