Your baby's care team: who does what and how Cubby keeps you organised across all of them
More people than you expected
Most first-time parents are surprised by how many professionals are involved in a baby's care in the first year. It is not just the GP. By the time your baby is twelve months old, you may have seen some or all of the following:
- Midwife — from pregnancy through to the six-to-eight week postnatal check; the primary point of contact in the early days after birth
- Health visitor or public health nurse — developmental checks and parent support from birth to school age; in the UK this role is NHS-funded; equivalent roles exist in the UAE (well-baby clinics at government hospitals) and India (antenatal and child health services under RBSK and JSSK)
- GP or family doctor — acute illness, minor concerns, prescriptions and referrals
- Paediatrician — a specialist baby and child doctor; NHS referral in the UK; widely accessible in private practice in the UAE and India without a referral
- Lactation consultant or breastfeeding specialist — if feeding is not established easily or if there are concerns about latch, supply or weight gain
- Specialist — dermatologist for persistent eczema, gastroenterologist for severe reflux, ENT for recurrent ear infections, ophthalmologist for eye concerns; reached by referral from the GP or paediatrician
- Pharmacist — the most accessible first port of call for minor illness, medication questions and over-the-counter advice
Each of these people sees your baby at a point in time. None of them, by default, sees the full picture of what has been happening between appointments.
The coordination gap in the care team
The GP doesn't know what the health visitor found at the six-week check. The paediatrician doesn't know what medicine the GP prescribed last week. The lactation consultant doesn't know what the GP said about feeding. Each professional gets a fragment of the picture. The parent is the only person who holds all of it — and they are also sleep-deprived, trying to remember everything across multiple appointments and multiple weeks.
This is not a criticism of any of these professionals. It is how most healthcare systems work: episodic consultations, brief records, separate systems. The coordination gap is structural, and it falls on parents to bridge it.
The Cubby log doesn't replace these professionals. But it gives you a record you can bring to any of these appointments, so each professional gets more than a fragment.
What each person in the care team needs from your log
Midwife and health visitor. They are monitoring feeding frequency, weight trend, sleeping pattern and — importantly — how the parent is coping. If breastfeeding is the concern, the note you logged last week saying "12 feeds in 24 hours, cluster feeding from 6pm" answers their question faster than trying to reconstruct it. If you have been logging weight entries after each clinic visit, the trend is there in the app without anyone needing to look up the red book.
GP. For an acute appointment — a temperature, a rash, a cough that won't shift — the GP needs recent temperature readings, the medicines you have given (name, dose, time), and when the symptom started. The medicine log and temperature notes in Cubby give them this in thirty seconds. You are not trying to remember whether you gave ibuprofen at 2pm or 3pm. It is written down.
Paediatrician. A paediatric appointment is often the culmination of a longer concern — something the GP has been monitoring, a pattern that has not resolved. The paediatrician wants to see growth trend over multiple visits, feeding amounts over time, and if there is a recurring symptom, the history of that symptom. A few weeks of consistent logging pays off significantly in a single appointment. You arrive with a record, not a reconstruction.
Specialist. The dermatologist treating persistent eczema wants to know what makes it worse and what helps. The ENT treating recurrent ear infections wants to see the frequency and timeline. The gastroenterologist wants feeding amounts and vomiting frequency alongside the medicine log. This is exactly what a Cubby symptom diary provides — see Keeping a baby symptom diary in Cubby for how to build one.
Storing care team information in Cubby
There is no contacts section in Cubby, but a note works well for this. Write the names and numbers for your GP surgery, health visitor, paediatrician and any relevant specialists into a single note. Keep it near the top of the log so it is easy to find. Everyone in your family circle can see it — which means the other parent, a grandparent covering an appointment, or anyone else in the circle doesn't need to call you to ask for the number.
Something like: "Our care team: Dr [name] at [surgery], 0X0 XXX XXXX. Health visitor: [name], Wednesday drop-in at [clinic]. Paediatrician: Dr [name], [clinic name], [number]." Brief, in the log, visible to the whole circle.
After each appointment, a short note of what was said and any follow-up actions is useful both as a record and as communication for anyone in the circle who wasn't there. "HV visit 14 June — weight 5.8kg — happy with development — follow-up in 8 weeks" takes thirty seconds to write and saves the same question being asked by three different people.
The circle as the care coordination layer
When multiple caregivers attend different appointments, the Cubby circle is the continuity. Mum takes the baby to the health visitor on Tuesday. Dad takes the baby to the GP on Wednesday. The GP can see, via the log on the parent's phone, what the health visitor noted at yesterday's visit — weight, feeding advice, any concerns flagged. It is not a perfect shared care record, but it is the closest thing most families have access to without a dedicated care coordinator.
This matters most in the moments when things are moving quickly: a run of illness, a specialist referral being pursued, a period when feeding is difficult and multiple professionals are involved. At those times, the log is the thread that connects the fragments. Anyone in the circle can see what happened, when, and what was decided — without needing a group call to reconstruct it.
The app has no ads, no trackers, and your data stays within your circle. When you share the log at an appointment, you are sharing it on your terms, on your device, with the specific person in front of you.
Frequently asked questions
Does Cubby have a way to store my baby's doctor's contact information?
There is no dedicated contacts section in Cubby, but a pinned note works well for this. Write the names, phone numbers and clinic details for your GP, health visitor, paediatrician and any specialists in a single note. It lives in the shared log, which means every caregiver in your circle can see it without having to ask you for the number.
How does Cubby help when different caregivers go to different appointments?
The shared log is the continuity layer. If one parent takes the baby to the health visitor on Tuesday and the other takes the baby to the GP on Wednesday, the GP can see (via the log on the parent's phone) what the health visitor found and noted. There is no perfect shared care record for most families, but a shared real-time log is the closest practical equivalent.
What should I log after a health visitor visit?
Log the date of the visit, the weight and any measurements taken, any advice given (on feeding, sleep, development), any concerns the health visitor raised, and any follow-up actions. A brief note is enough — for example: "HV visit — weight 5.8kg — advised on introducing a bedtime routine — follow-up in 4 weeks." This gives any other caregiver in the circle the key information without them needing to ask.
What is the difference between a GP and a paediatrician for baby care?
A GP is a general family doctor who handles illness, referrals and routine care across all ages. A paediatrician is a specialist doctor whose practice is exclusively babies and children. In the UK, you see a paediatrician only via NHS referral or by paying for a private appointment. In the UAE and India, private paediatricians are widely accessible without a referral. For anything routine or acute, the GP is the first port of call. For persistent, complex or developmental concerns, the paediatrician is the relevant specialist.
Can I share my Cubby log with a specialist?
The most straightforward way is to bring your phone to the appointment and scroll to the relevant entries. You can add a specialist to your family circle so they can view the log directly, though most specialists prefer to receive structured clinical summaries rather than browse a live log. For referral appointments, preparing a brief written summary of the key entries — dates, frequency, duration, what helped — is often more useful than showing the raw log.
One log. Every appointment. Every caregiver.
The record that travels with your baby through every consultation.
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