Early childhood development and care

Specifically for early childhood development and care, healthcare facilities of the UAE Government offer health checkup for new-borns and vaccinations. They also provide specialised health care to pediatric patients (children) in the outpatient department in the government hospitals.

Health check-up for new-borns

Healthcare facilities  provide early detection services for neonatal diseases. The diseases that are examined include 40 genetic diseases in accordance with international standards. Some of these are:

• Phenylketonuria
• Endocrine insufficiency
• Sickle cell anemia
• Congenital malformations
• Biotin deficiency disease
• Diseases of amino acids, organic and fatty (mass spectrometer)
• Galactosemia.

Other tests such as cardiac examination to detect critical congenital deformities of the heart and early screening of hearing disorders for newborns to detect hereditary deafness.

Child health and vaccinations service from Emirates Health Services enables children to receive periodic health and development assessment as well as the required vaccination according to the UAE’s National Immunization Programme

Read about Maternal and Child Health Programme - Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre

• Examination by the doctor
• Hearing screening
• Congenital heart disease screening
• Heel prick/bloodspot test.

Vaccination schedule

The UAE Government mandates vaccinations to children from the time they are born to the time they reach Grade 11. Vaccinations prevent the following diseases:

1. BCG: Bacillus, Calmette-Guerin (against tuberculosis)
2. DPT: Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus
3. DTaP: Diphtheria, Tetanus, and acellular Pertussis
4. Hep B: Hepatitis B
5. Hexavalent: DTaP, Hib, Hep B and IPV
6. Hib: Haemophilus Influenzae Type B
7. HPV: Human Papillomavirus
8. IPV: Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine
9. MMR: Measles, Mumps and Rubella
10. OPV: Oral Poliovirus Vaccine
11. PCV: Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine
12. Pentavalent: DPT, Hib and Hep B
13. Tdap: Tetanus, reduced Diphtheria and reduced Pertussis
14. Tetravalent: DTaP and Hib.

A chart showing vaccination schedule for children:

All schools and their food suppliers in the UAE must follow the healthy nutritional guidelines issued by the authorities concerned, to ensure providing healthy foods for schoolchildren.

Department of Health in Abu Dhabi launched Schools for health, a health programme focusing on the all-round health of schoolchildren. 

Resources: 

• Infant nutrition (PDF, 500 KB)

• Guidelines and requirements for food and nutrition in schools in Dubai

In addition, the Government is also trying to tackle obesity and protect children from the negative effects of smoking. 

Obesity

Obesity amongst children is a cause of concern in the UAE. According to the results of the National Health Survey 2017–2018 (PDF) the obesity rate amongst children and adolescents aged between 5 and 17 years reached about 17.35 per cent.

National Program for Government Communication launched 2021 Healthy Children initiative to fight obesity amongst children. The UAE National Agenda aims to reduce the prevalence of obesity amongst children from 13.17 per cent (as of 2014) to 12 percent by the year 2021.

Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) launched the ‘Mutabah’ system, the UAE’s first online system of its kind to collect data on obesity and extra weight among school students.

The ‘Mutabah’ system accurately and quickly identifies overweight school students on an annual basis and provides information on the food pattern the student should follow along with the level of physical activity to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

Watch this video about 2021 Healthy Children 

Forbidding smoking

Read the UAE's efforts to forbid children from both active and passive smoking.

Cochlear implants

In 2018, under the Help Me Hear initiative, the UAE Government carried out cochlear implanting operations in non-Emirati children belonging to low-income households. View video: