You found a new doctor. The kids are booked in. But the records from the old office — the vaccine history, the growth curve, the allergy notes, the referral letters — none of that walks over on its own. Here's what actually happens, and what you can do about it.
When you leave a pediatrician's practice, your child's records stay there. The old office keeps them (they're legally required to, typically for years). The new office starts a fresh chart. Unless you arrange the transfer, the new provider sees your child for the first time with little to no history.
There's no central database that follows your child. No universal record that moves when you move. Each practice maintains its own files, in its own system, behind its own portal login. When you switch, you're the bridge.
The single most-requested item. Your new pediatrician needs the full vaccine history — not just "she's up to date" but dates and specific vaccines. Without it, they may recommend re-administration or delay care.
Where to get it: Call the old office and request a printed immunization record. Your state's immunization registry may also have it — check your state health department's website.
A single height and weight measurement means little. The curve over months and years is what matters. If the new office doesn't have the historical data, they start the curve from scratch.
Where to get it: Request a growth chart printout from the old practice. Some portals let you download it; others require a records request.
Drug allergies, food allergies, past reactions, current medications. The new provider needs all of it. "I think she reacted to something once" is not a medical record.
Where to get it: Ask the old office for an allergy summary and current medication list. If your child saw an allergist, that specialist may have separate records that the pediatrician doesn't.
Every specialist visit — the allergist, the ENT, the developmental pediatrician — generated a report that was (hopefully) sent to the old pediatrician. That report doesn't automatically re-send to the new one.
Where to get it: You can request the complete chart from the old practice, which should include specialist correspondence. Or contact the specialist's office directly for their summary letters.
Milestone assessments, hearing and vision screening results, developmental questionnaire scores. These build a picture over time. Without them, the new provider lacks context about your child's developmental trajectory.
Where to get it: Request the full medical record from the old practice. This is broader than just the immunization record — it includes visit notes, screening results, and assessments. The old office may charge a copying fee.
Even parents who do everything right end up with gaps. You transfer the records from Office A to Office B. Then you move and go to Office C. Office C gets records from B, but not the originals from A. Specialist reports from two years ago? In Office A's files. The ER visit on vacation? In a hospital system nobody thought to request records from.
Every transition adds a seam. Each seam is a place where information gets lost — not because anyone did anything wrong, but because the system wasn't built to follow your family.
If you want to understand what a pediatrician's portal actually holds (and what it doesn't), that's worth reading too. The portal is one provider's view — not the whole story.
The records belong to the practice. Each portal belongs to that office's software vendor. When you switch, you're moving between systems that don't share data, don't talk to each other, and don't consider you the owner of the information.
This is why parents end up as the de facto medical records department for their kids — printing, photographing, transferring, remembering. It works until it doesn't. Until you're at the ER in a new city and can't remember the name of the antibiotic that caused a reaction three years ago.
The alternative: one timeline that belongs to your family, not to any single provider. Every checkup, every vaccine, every allergy test, every ER visit — in one place that follows your child from their first heartbeat, through every provider change, every move, every stage of life. That's what a family health record is for.
Use this as a quick reference when you're switching. For a more detailed breakdown by age group, see the complete health records checklist.
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