Pediatrics is a primary care medical specialty that focuses on the care of infants, children, and teenagers. This care includes conducting well-child checkups, seeing kids when they are sick, and screening for emotional and developmental problems, etc.
From treating acne, asthma, and abdominal pain to varicella-zoster infections (the virus that causes chicken pox), pediatricians are well trained to manage many simple and more complex pediatric problems.
Although many people associate pediatrics with young children, many pediatricians care for children from birth until they are 21 years old.
After medical school, doctors who are looking for a career in pediatrics get three years of additional training in a pediatric residency program. In addition to general pediatrics, pediatricians can also choose to have additional training to become a pediatric subspecialist.
Pediatric subspecialties include:
- Adolescent medicine
- Pediatric cardiology
- Child abuse
- Pediatric critical care medicine
- Pediatric dermatology
- Developmental/behavioral pediatrics
- Pediatric emergency medicine
- Pediatric endocrinology
- Pediatric gastroenterology
- Pediatric hematology/oncology
- Hospice and palliative medicine
- Pediatric infectious disease
- Pediatric medical toxicology
- Neonatal/perinatal medicine
- Pediatric nephrology
- Neurodevelopmental disabilities
- Pediatric pulmonology
- Pediatric rheumatology
- Pediatric sleep medicine
- Sports medicine
- Transplant hepatology
Other pediatric specialists, such as pediatric surgeons and pediatric psychiatrists, are not necessarily pediatricians, although they do have additional training to be certified as a pediatric specialist.
