Table 1 Description of standard care

Visits

The recommendation from the Danish Health Authority is that a minimum of five consultations (mostly home visits) are offered to all children and their families from birth to one year of age under the auspices of the municipality-based health visiting programme [28]:

  1. First visit within the first week of life (for mothers discharged < 72 h postpartum)

  2. Second visit during the first month of life

  3. Third visit when the infant is two months old

  4. Fourth visit when the infant is four to six months, and

  5. Fifth visit when the infant is eight to ten months old

In the standard care lies an option for health visitors to offer families so called ‘needs based visits’ or follow-up if the health visitor considers this required [28]

Content of the visits

The content of the standard care is prevention and health promotion, and subjects depend on the timing of the visits [28] The topics include:

• Breastfeeding support and –cessation prevention

• Infant thriving

• Family formation

• Physical and mental condition of the infant, including infant-parent attachment

• Infant self-regulation

• Psychomotor development

• Parents’ mental well-being (including screening for postpartum depression)

• Infants’ eating- and sleeping patterns

• Introduction to solid foods (4–6-month visit)

• Language development, and

• Prevention of accidents