Last updated: August 9, 2026
On first launch the app asks six screens of questions: your baby's date of birth and the state the birth was registered in, the state you live in, whether the parents are married, how the family is covered, and which optional things you want on the list. Every one of those answers changes what ends up in the plan, which is why it does not ask for anything else.
When you finish, the Plan tab shows the tasks that apply to you, soonest deadline first.
Tap it. The first thing on the detail screen is one sentence about why it applies to your household, and at the bottom is a link to the government page the rule came from, with the date that page was last read. If a task does not apply to you, tap Does not apply to us and it stays off the list even when the plan is rebuilt.
A job-based health plan must offer at least 30 days after a birth to add the baby. Marketplace coverage is generally 60. Those are the only two the app will send you a notification about, deliberately: an app that pings you about everything is an app you turn notifications off for.
Your own plan may allow longer. It may not allow less. Check the plan documents if the date is close.
Birth certificates are issued by state or local offices, and the rules differ everywhere. Where we have read a state's own page and can say something specific, the task links straight to that office and Settings lists the state as verified. Everywhere else it links to the federal directory, which has a state-by-state picker. We would rather send you somewhere general and correct than somewhere specific and guessed.
Not switched on yet. The Family tab currently says so, and the app makes no network requests at all. Everything below describes how it will work when sharing ships; the plan you have already built moves across as it is.
Family tab → sign in with Apple → start a shared family → invite. The invitation carries a web link and an eight-character code, so it opens on a laptop or on a phone that does not have the app yet. It works once and expires after 48 hours.
Whoever joins is never charged. One purchase covers the family. Ticking a document off on one phone shows on the other, so nobody rings the same office twice.
Check iPhone Settings → Notifications → Baby Docs, and check Settings inside the app. Reminders are scheduled on your own phone, so they work with no network, but only for tasks with a hard deadline that are not yet done.
Family tab shows when the last sync completed and what went wrong if it did not. Everything keeps working while it is broken: the app reads from the copy on your phone and queues your changes until they can be sent.
Settings → Restore purchases brings back a purchase on a new phone or after a reinstall. Purchases and subscriptions are handled by Apple, so refunds are requested through Apple, not through us.
Settings → Delete account removes your account and your membership. If you are the last member of a family, the family and its plan go with it. Deleting the app removes the copy on that phone.
Anything else, including a rule you think is wrong or out of date:
jackwallner+babydocs@gmail.com
Reports of a stale or incorrect rule are the most useful mail we get. Please include your state.