A child and the doctor in Portugal: where to go when your child is ill and how to get vaccinations
This guide will help you arrange routine check-ups for your child, get help when they are ill and not get lost between the state health centre, the paediatrician and a private clinic. The state system is usually enough for vaccinations, check-ups for a healthy child and primary care, while people more often choose private medicine for quick appointments, a regular paediatrician or a second opinion.
Register your child with the state health system
Get your child a número de utente (patient number) from the Serviço Nacional de Saúde (National Health Service, SNS) and register with your local Centro de saúde (state health centre). Depending on the area, your child will be registered with a Unidade de Saúde Familiar (family health unit, USF) or a Unidade de Cuidados de Saúde Personalizados (personalised primary care unit, UCSP).
Not having an assigned family doctor does not in itself stop you from getting vaccinations or seeing the nurse. After the birth, the maternity hospital sometimes passes the details on, but check that the health centre has actually received them and booked the first appointment.
“I ended up there by chance, but I don't regret it. The labour rooms are big, clean and refurbished. The teams are attentive, the staff are friendly. All the postnatal rooms have been refurbished, clean, two people per room. The food's good, they give you loads of protein for recovery. I lost a lot of blood, they kept a constant eye on me. They looked after the babies really well too, the nurses asked if we needed help with latching, offered to show us how to bath the baby. They did the vaccinations and the heel prick test, passed the info to our Saúde, and the Saúde rang us on the day we were discharged to book an appointment. They got my daughter her utente straight away.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal18.02.2026
Get a child health booklet and keep it safe
The main paper document is the Boletim de Saúde Infantil e Juvenil (child health booklet). It has pages for routine check-ups by age, notes on development and advice for parents. Vaccinations are also recorded in the Boletim Individual de Saúde (individual health record) or a separate vaccination booklet.
Take the booklets to check-ups and vaccinations, even if the details are already in the SNS electronic system. If your child was vaccinated in another country, bring the original record with dates, vaccine names and doses; a translation into Portuguese or English helps.
“If they gave you a booklet for the baby, you can see in it when the routine appointments and jabs are due There are separate pages for the appointments, they say consulta de X meses/anos”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkpequenos_PT08.05.2026
“If it's just the BCG, you don't need the weighing or the chat) We emailed them to book us in for the BCG, after a while they rang back and offered 2 dates to choose from. Then we came at the agreed time and just had the jab.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal21.08.2026
Find out who looks after a healthy child
At the Centro de saúde (state health centre), much of the routine monitoring is done by the enfermeiro de saúde infantil (child health nurse): they weigh and measure your child, check their development, talk about feeding and care, do the heel prick test on newborns and give vaccinations. In the first weeks the nurse may book extra weigh-ins.
Diagnoses, prescriptions, tests and referrals are done by a doctor. In state primary care this is often a médico de família (family doctor), not a paediatrician. A pediatra (paediatrician) in the SNS mostly works in hospital and sees children referred for medical reasons. So don't expect every routine check-up at the state centre to be done by a paediatrician.
Children are given a family doctor more readily than adults: in conversations from 2025–2026 this comes up again and again — the parents were not given a doctor, but the child was registered and the centre calls them in for check-ups and vaccinations itself. Sometimes, up to the age of two, a child is seen at a different centre from the one the family is registered with. Ask about this directly at reception: a doctor for a child and a doctor for an adult are allocated from separate waiting lists. How these lists work and what to do while you have no doctor is covered in the guide Family doctor in Portugal.
“As soon as I gave birth I emailed them that I wanted to come to the Saúde for the heel prick test, they gave me an appointment with the nurse, and since then they always book me in ahead of time.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal29.04.2026
“For the first six months the appointments at the centro de Saúde were always with a paediatrician, then we were given a family doctor and never saw the paediatrician again.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal23.03.2026
If your child falls ill on a weekday, contact the health centre first
If the situation does not look like an emergency, call or write to your Centro de saúde (state health centre) and ask for a consulta aberta or consulta de doença aguda (same-day appointment for acute illness). A nurse may assess your child first and then bring in a doctor if needed.
If the health centre does not answer or cannot see you, call SNS 24 (the National Health Service helpline) on 808 24 24 24. After asking some questions, the specialist will give advice and, if necessary, send you to an on-call health centre or to Urgência Pediátrica (children's A&E).
“Oh, Mafra))) Practically neighbours. Yes, that's normal practice. Our paediatrician appointment got cancelled. And the kid had a cough, the kind where you really needed a doctor. Long story short, my husband rang them and gave them a scare, like at least reschedule it, what are you doing. They looked for an urgent slot.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal15.04.2026
At night and at weekends, call SNS 24 first
Whether an Urgência Pediátrica (children's A&E) unit is open depends on the hospital, the day and the time: a unit may temporarily stop taking children. So if it is not an emergency, call 808 24 24 24 first and check where to go. A referral through SNS 24 also helps you get to the right place and avoid a trip to a closed unit.
Don't wait for the helpline if your child is struggling to breathe, turning blue, losing consciousness, having seizures or is in any other life-threatening condition: call 112. A temperature of 38 °C or above in a baby under three months, marked dehydration or unusual lethargy also need urgent assessment.
Use a private paediatrician if speed and a regular doctor matter
People usually go to a private clinic when there is no quick appointment in the SNS, or they want one regular paediatrician, a detailed consultation or a second opinion. You can book directly with the clinic, but some tests, specialists and insurance refunds need a referral — check the rules with the clinic and the insurer in advance.
Insurance does not mean a free appointment: there is usually a copagamento (patient co-payment), and the amount depends on the network, the plan and the service. Before going to a children's Urgência (A&E), find out whether the unit takes children, whether the clinic is in the insurer's network and how much triage, tests and the consultation cost.
“I've never once been to the Saúde. I did all the routine check-ups and jabs at CUF. With insurance it's 19 euros a visit. I like that there's no queue and you can easily book with the same paediatrician every time”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal16.02.2026
Agree the vaccination schedule with the nurse
Vaccinations under the Programa Nacional de Vacinação (National Vaccination Programme, PNV) are given free at the Centro de saúde (state health centre) to children who qualify by age and medical criteria. Portuguese citizenship is not the main condition for this. The schedule changes, so it is checked against the child's year of birth and the doses already given.
Give the nurse your foreign records: she will enter the details and draw up a catch-up schedule if the doses or intervals differ. The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine (tuberculosis vaccine, BCG) is no longer given to everyone in Portugal: it is given to children in risk groups. You may be asked for proof of risk or a doctor's recommendation for it.
At a private clinic a PNV vaccine may be free, but the nurse's work is charged separately. A vaccine outside the national programme often needs a doctor's prescription: you buy it at a pharmacy and bring it to the clinic, or check in advance whether the clinic has it.
“We started vaccinating later for medical reasons, but that was still back home. When we came here and went to CUF, they drew up a vaccination schedule for us (plus we needed a vaccine that's on the state plan here but isn't given back home at all) and the nurse told us when to come and which vaccine to have.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkpequenos_PT21.07.2026
“I think I already wrote somewhere about our BCG success story) We went to a paediatrician at a private clinic for the first appointment after the birth, she asked if they give BCG in our country, we said yes, and then she wrote in the baby's booklet that BCG was recommended for us. I sent an email to the Sete Rios saúde saying the paediatrician had recommended BCG for the baby because my husband and I are from Belarus.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal21.08.2026
Check that the vaccination appointment has actually been booked
If the health centre promised to call back but didn't, chase them by email or in person. Some vaccines are only given at a particular centre or once a group has been put together, so the wait can drag on.
After the jab, ask for the vaccine name, batch number and date to be entered straight away in the paper booklet and the electronic system. If you get an unexpected message about a debt, don't pay it just via the link in the text message: first ask for a fatura (invoice) and an explanation at the health centre or through an official SNS contact.
“I'd heard that too, but in practice it turned out to be a myth) I just went up to reception at Luz, they put my name on a list and said they'd call when they'd got a group of kids together for this jab (like it's given to several kids in a row, no idea why).”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkpequenos_PT01.07.2026
“at the nurse's appointment we asked about the tuberculosis jab. She sent a request to the central Saúde. After a while they rang and booked an appointment. Of course, not without them losing the request and forgetting to call us.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkpequenos_PT19.06.2026
Keep an eye on your child after a vaccination
Before you leave, ask the nurse which reactions are expected and which symptoms mean you should call a doctor. Don't give fever medicine in advance without individual advice; the dose is worked out from your child's weight and the active ingredient.
If your child has difficulty breathing, a swollen face, impaired consciousness or seizures, call 112. For a high or long-lasting temperature, refusing to drink, an unusual rash or if anything worries you, contact SNS 24 or a doctor. The reaction at the BCG site is assessed separately: it may not appear straight away, but the site must not be squeezed or treated unless prescribed.
“With us, 2 months after the jab it started to swell up - there was a big lump. Doctors in both Portugal and Russia looked at it and said it's fine - an individual reaction. Don't put anything on it, don't squeeze it.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkpequenos_PT14.04.2026
What it costs, according to community conversations
| paediatrician with insurance | €19 for a routine appointment at a private clinic | source |
| private appointment before refund | €120; in one case the insurer refunded about €65, in another nothing | source |
| children's urgência without insurance | €200 per visit plus €30 for the paediatrician consultation | source |
| nurse for a vaccination | from €15 with insurance to €17; the national programme vaccine was free | source |
| nurse home visit for a baby | about €65 for the visit, weighing and heel prick test with Médis insurance | source |
| insurance for a child | about €40 a month extra for a child on a Multicare family policy | source |
| infectious disease specialist for a referral | €100 | source |
| paediatrician consultation | 30€ | source |
| Freestyle Libre sensor | €7.95 | source |
| nurse appointment with insurance | €15 | source |
| regular doctor's appointment | €20 | source |
| regular doctor's appointment | €30 | source |
| regular doctor's appointment | €40 | source |
| doctor's visit before refund | €120 | source |
| insurance refund for a visit | €65 | source |
| nurse's services for a vaccination | €17 | source |
| Multicare family insurance | 205€ | source |
What changed
- 29 August 2026 — added what to do if your child has no family doctor
- 29 August 2026 — added that children are given a family doctor more readily, and a link to the guide on family doctors
What to bring
- your child's passport or other ID document
- número de utente (SNS patient number)
- Boletim de Saúde Infantil e Juvenil (child health booklet)
- Boletim Individual de Saúde (individual health record)
- foreign vaccination record with dates and doses
- discharge summaries from the maternity hospital and previous clinics
- list of medicines, allergies and chronic conditions
- insurance card for a private clinic
- prescription and vaccine, if the private clinic asked for them
Where people most often trip up
- At a state health centre a healthy child is often looked after by a nurse and a family doctor, not a paediatrician.
- At night the children's Urgência may be closed: if it is not an emergency, call SNS 24 first.
- Not having a family doctor should not stop you booking vaccinations or seeing the nurse.
- BCG is given based on risk factors, not automatically to every child.
- Foreign vaccinations may not be recorded without a document showing exact dates, names and doses.
- A request for a rare vaccine can get lost; once the promised time has passed, chase it in writing.
- Private insurance usually leaves a co-payment and may not cover a particular clinic or service.
- Don't pay the full amount upfront to a stranger for a paediatrician's home visit.
- Don't pay an unexpected debt from a text message until you get an official invoice and a breakdown of the service.
- If you disagree with a diagnosis, it makes sense to get a second opinion, but don't replace an in-person examination with advice from the internet.
How it went for people
Tongue-tie snipped after two months
The baby had a slightly short tongue-tie: he swallowed air, choked and suffered from wind, although he was gaining weight well on breast milk. The parent insisted on having his tongue examined, and the tongue-tie was only snipped after 2 months. Four days later feeding became much easier and there was far less wind; by almost 3 months there were no other problems.
A child's reaction to two rounds of vaccinations
After the first round of vaccinations the child cried a lot during the injections and, after a nap, screamed because the injection site was inflamed. Paracetamol helped straight away, there was no temperature, and the next day things were back to normal. Before the 4-month vaccinations paracetamol was given in advance: the temperature went up now and then, but the redness was milder and there was no heavy crying.
How they coped with bad colic
At around 1–1.5 months the son had bad colic, and a gas relief tube only helped for a short while — an hour later the crying started again. The paediatrician prescribed 0.5 of a micro-enema once a day or as needed, but no more often, even though there was no constipation. At the same time the parents massaged the baby, carried him in special positions and switched to a formula with partially hydrolysed protein. As a result the attacks became much milder.
How they got an appointment with a paediatrician
The child had the BCG at 1 month and almost 3 weeks at the Alameda health centre, and the nurse entered the earlier vaccinations from a private clinic into the system. The family needed a prescription for the rotavirus vaccine before the vaccinations on 4 May, but the private doctor could not see the child in the system because of registration problems. A receptionist helped complete the registration using a translator. At first there were no free slots, but later she found an appointment with a paediatrician for Thursday.
Awake windows got shorter after the jabs
After the 4-month vaccinations the child's awake time suddenly dropped to about 1 hour, although the gaps between naps had been longer before. The parent kept to the old routine and faced meltdowns at bedtime. After the routine was adjusted, daytime sleep gradually settled. Later the gaps between naps went back to about 2 hours, and before night-time sleep to 2.5 hours.
Check-ups and vaccinations after the birth
After the birth at a state hospital the baby was examined regularly, and the nurses offered help with latching and showed how to bath the baby. They gave the vaccinations and did the heel prick test there, and passed the details on to the health centre. On the day of discharge the centre rang and booked the next appointment. The baby's utente number was issued straight away.
Retold in our own words from messages in open chats. The link leads to the full original message.