Pediatrics

Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. The age limit of such patients ranges from birth to 18. In countries where the age of majority is 18, this age limit may be from birth to age 17 (such as in Canada). A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician.

What is Pediatrics?

Pediatrics is the branch of medicine dealing with the health and medical care of infants, children, and adolescents from birth up to the age of 18. The word “paediatrics” means “healer of children”; they are derived from two Greek words: (pais = child) and (iatros = doctor or healer). Paediatrics is a relatively new medical specialty, developing only in the mid-19th century. Abraham Jacobi (1830–1919) is known as the father of paediatrics.

Pediatrics Training

Pediatric Skin Conditions

Subspecialties of Pediatrics

Pediatrician: Role, Education, Training, Subspecialties

Infections in Childhood

A Brief History of Pediatrics

Child and Adolescent Sports Injuries

Importance of Sensory Stimulation for Babies

Supporting Children with Mental Health Disorders

How Fast Food Affects Children's Health

Mental Health Disorders and Children

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Effects of Passive Smoking on Children's Health

Latest Pediatrics News and Research

Phthalates linked to hundreds of thousands of global heart disease deaths

Daily exposure to certain chemicals used to make plastic household items could be linked to the more than 356,000 global deaths from heart disease that occurred in 2018 alone, a new analysis of population surveys shows.

29 Apr 2025

Global analysis ties plastic ingredient to soaring heart disease deaths

Daily exposure to certain chemicals used to make plastic household items could be linked to more than 356,000 global deaths from heart disease in 2018 alone, a new analysis of population surveys shows.

29 Apr 2025

CommunityRx program reduces ER visits for food insecure children

In a new clinical study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine found that a low-intensity program that "prescribes" community resources to every parent or other primary caregiver of a hospitalized child reduced the use of acute care for children of food-insecure families in the following year, saving potentially thousands of dollars in healthcare expenditures while demanding little more than minutes of staff time per family.

28 Apr 2025

MASLD in children linked to increased mortality and chronic complications

Researchers from University of California San Diego have found that children diagnosed with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) are at significantly increased risk of premature death and serious long-term health complications.

28 Apr 2025

Erythropoietin fails to improve outcomes for newborns with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy

Erythropoietin, a treatment for newborns with critically low levels of oxygen or blood supply to the brain at birth, does not prevent death or disability, according to a new multinational study.

25 Apr 2025

New DNA mapping technology uncovers genetic clues to rare diseases

Cutting-edge DNA mapping technology identified new genetic information that can help researchers decipher more genetic diseases, a new study found.

25 Apr 2025

Telehealth in pediatric primary care linked to responsible antibiotic use

Children treated with primary care telehealth visits were less likely to receive antibiotics for acute respiratory tract infections than those examined in person, according to a new study.

25 Apr 2025

Buprenorphine improves outcomes for pregnant women with opioid use disorder

Pregnant women living with opioid use disorder (OUD) and their infants had significantly better health outcomes when treated with buprenorphine, according to a new study at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health.

25 Apr 2025

Early antibiotic use linked to higher childhood BMI

Taking antibiotics within the first two years of life is linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) in childhood, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2025 Meeting, held April 24-28 in Honolulu.

25 Apr 2025

Children with chronic conditions face higher RSV hospitalization risk

Young children with chronic conditions are more likely to be hospitalized for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) than healthy children, according to a new study.

25 Apr 2025

Study reveals how medulloblastoma spreads and grows on the leptomeninges

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and collaborating institutions reveal in Nature Cell Biology a strategy that helps medulloblastoma, the most prevalent malignant brain tumor in children, spread and grow on the leptomeninges, the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

22 Apr 2025

Vaccinated children far less likely to develop long COVID

Unvaccinated children and adolescents were up to 20 times more likely to develop long COVID than their vaccinated peers, according to new research led by a team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

21 Apr 2025

Anxiety and depression in children increased steadily from 2016 to 2022

The percentage of children under 18 years old with anxiety and depression increased steadily from 2016 to 2022, according to publicly available data from the National Survey of Children's Health that were analyzed by researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

21 Apr 2025

EEG monitoring helps reduce anesthesia use and improves pediatric recovery

Newly published results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial in Japan among more than 170 children aged 1 to 6 who underwent surgery, show that by using EEG readings of brain waves to monitor unconsciousness, an anesthesiologist can significantly reduce the amount of the anesthesia administered to safely induce and sustain each patient's anesthetized state.

21 Apr 2025

Experimental cancer drug shows promise in boosting tuberculosis treatment

An experimental drug now in clinical trials as a cancer treatment could help boost the power of first-line tuberculosis (TB) treatments by helping infected cells die a gentler death, Johns Hopkins Medicine investigators report, based on mouse-model research of the lung-damaging disease.

21 Apr 2025

The lasting impact of paternal depression on children

In popular culture, dads are stoic, sensitive and strong. So powerful is the mystique of the happy dad that celebrities, joke books – even hard seltzers – carry the label.

20 Apr 2025

Yale study links childhood thyroid cancer risk to air and light pollution

A new study led by researchers at Yale University suggests that early-life exposure to two widespread environmental pollutants- small particle air pollution and outdoor artificial light at night-could increase the risk of pediatric thyroid cancer.

17 Apr 2025

Researchers use algorithm to pinpoint disease risk mutations in noncoding DNA

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Medicine) have successfully employed an algorithm to identify potential mutations which increase disease risk in the noncoding regions our DNA, which make up the vast majority of the human genome.

17 Apr 2025

Hydroxyurea shows long-term benefits for children with sickle cell disease

Hydroxyurea remains effective long-term in reducing emergency department visits and hospital days for children living with sickle cell disease (SCD), according to new research published in Blood Advances.

17 Apr 2025

Pediatricians warn of measles resurgence and emphasize vaccine safety

Pediatric infectious diseases experts stress the importance of vaccination against measles, one of the most contagious viruses, which is once more spreading in the United States.

15 Apr 2025