Running head: 18 month old male toddler assessment

18 Month Old Male Toddler Assessment

Student: Anzhela Fedoronchuk
Student No: N00989267
Date Submitted: October 31, 2014
NURS 104: Health Assessment
Professor: Rosemary Watkins
Humber College ITAL

Student ID: N00989267 1

Running head: 18 month old male toddler assessment

Student ID: N00989267 2

18 Month Old Male Toddler Assessment

Health assessment is really important for everybody, especially from the
beginning of human life. People need to go to a clinic and to visit a doctor and or to
check with a nurse all immunizations and overall health assessment at least once a
year. It is necessary to start checking for health as soon as possible and follow all
recommendations and requirements from a nurse, a doctor that to be healthy. Children
cannot got to a clinic by themselves, so their parents have to participate in all
procedures and the main decision about their child should be listened from them at the
first place. Parents need to take care of their child from the beginning of their life and
make sure that child grows up normally and there are no abnormalities. If there are
some changes in baby`s health or differences in behavior, so it is parents` duty to
confirm with a nurse or a doctor about child`s health and find the way how to treat, what
to do, and where to go that to make child grow up normally. When parents come with a
child to the hospital for planned assessment, the nurse of duty has to perform full health
assessment that to keep child healthy and to find any abnormalities at early stage of
child`s age. It is the main goal to achieve for a nurse during nursing process.
In my case, I am a nurse on duty, and I have a patient 18 month old male toddler
who came with parents for planned health assessment. First of all, I have to gather
subjective data and objective data. Subjective data is the information gathered from the
patient`s parents as they stated about child`s uncontrolled crying and insisting on being
carried. In addition, they said that when they left a child to crawl around for too long, he

Running head: 18 month old male toddler assessment

Student ID: N00989267 3

would roll on to his back and cry. Also, I have collected the objective data when I
checked toddler weight 36lbs and immunization list, because it is very important to
clarify that information. A boy had his last physical assessment when he was at the age
of 12 month old. Moreover, I made my point on toddler`s bowlegged stance, protuberant
abdomen and moderate lordosis. Nursing diagnosis is the next step to determine any
health problems. In this case, 18 month old male toddler has moderate lordosis as the
main problem. The other problem that I have observed is protuberant abdomen. For this
particular situation, I will perform musculoskeletal assessment of cervical, thoracic and
lumbar. Another reason, I will perform inspection and will observe the patient`s
abdomen. Toddler could experience pain in abdominal region that is why maybe he
cries all the time uncontrollably. For abdomen assessment, I will ask the patient to lie on
a bed and will look the general contour of the abdomen. Also, I will check the abdomen
for any masses, will perform auscultation for bowel sounds, and will palpate and
percuss the abdominal region. I will complete musculoskeletal assessment of cervical,
thoracic and lumbar by testing and doing exercises for their flexion, hypertension,
rotation, and lateral flexion. I will inspect the back and side view of baby`s chest and
abdomen. I will looking for toddler`s normal vertebral curves to determine whether the
child has normal or if there any displacing in spinal curves. Perry stated that lordosis is
an accentuation of the cervical or lumbar curvature beyond physical limits (2013,
p.1707-1708). People who has this disease usually experience pain and that is why
toddler cries a lot when he stays on the floor and crawls. Ploumis explains that normal
lumbar lordosis ranges between 40 and 60 degrees and lordosis from L1L3 is minimal

Running head: 18 month old male toddler assessment

Student ID: N00989267 4

or reversed because of kyphotic appearance of L1 and L2 vertebral bodies (2013, p.

89). I will inspect and palpate toddler`s deformity of the spine.
After my findings, I will create my nursing interventions and goals to achieve. The
best results can be reached when toddler will perform muscle stretching exercises, such
as leg and hip stretching and swimming. A child will perform daily physical exercises at
least for 20 minutes that to keep a child healthy and active. Child will be doing exercises
to contract and relax abdominal muscles, perform toe touches with pushdown exercises
for stretching muscles. Once a week a child have to go to a swimming pool and learn
swimming techniques, because water exercises is the best and easy to perform. During
some period of time, a child`s vertebral will return to normal position because of water
exercises and because of doing daily activities for strength.
In conclusion, 18 month old male toddler will complete his planned
musculoskeletal assessment. The problem with bowlegged stance, protuberant
abdomen and moderate lordosis have been detected and the solution of the problem
was find. The patient and patient`s parents have been learned what they should do for
their child health care. If there any questions about toddler assessment will disappear
from parents then the other planned assessment should be perform next year, or faster
to make sure if baby`s health become better or worse, or no changes at all. Family
doctor will be informed about 18 month toddler health assessment and all
documentation will be directed to a doctor for further assessment.

Running head: 18 month old male toddler assessment

Student ID: N00989267 5

References
College of Nurses of Ontario. (CNO). (2010). Practice Guideline: Consent. Retrieved
from www.cno.org.
Loizides, M., Georgiou, A., Somarakis, S., Witten, P., & Koumoundouros, G. (2014). A
new type of lordosis and vertebral body compression in Gilthead sea bream,
Sparus aurata L.: aetiology, anatomy and consequences for survival. Journal Of
Fish Diseases, 37(11), 949-957.
Ploumis, A., Wu, C., Mehbod, A., Gelalis, I., Wood, K. B. & Transfeldt, E. E. (March
2013). Science Direct. Mechanical Load Study of Lumbar Center of Rotation and
Lordosis and Its Potential Relationship to Formation of Rotatory Olisthesis. (v.1, i.
2), 89

Perry, S., Hochenberry, M., Lowdermilk, D., Wilson, D., Keenan-Lindsay, L., & Sams, C.
(2013). Maternal Child Nursing Care in Canada (pp. 1708-1708). Elsevier
Canada.