Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the age of 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends people seek pediatric care through the age of 21, but some pediatric subspecialists continue to care for adults up to 25. Worldwide age limits of pediatrics have been trending upward year after year. A medical doctor who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician. The word pediatrics and its cognates mean "healer of children", derived from the two Greek words: παῖς and ἰατρός. Pediatricians work in clinics, research centers, universities, general hospitals and children's hospitals, including those who practice pediatric subspecialties.
A lullaby, or a cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for children. The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition. In addition, lullabies are often used for the developing of communication skills, indication of emotional intent, maintenance of infants' undivided attention, modulation of infants' arousal, and regulation of behavior. Perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants. As a result, the music is often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in many countries, and have existed since ancient times.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, and maintains an office in Washington, D.C. The AAP has published hundreds of policy statements, ranging from advocacy issues to practice recommendations.
Thomas Berry Brazelton was an American pediatrician, author, and the developer of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). Brazelton hosted the cable television program What Every Baby Knows, and wrote a syndicated newspaper column. He wrote more than two hundred scholarly papers and twenty-four books.
William Penton Sears, also referred to as Dr. Bill, is an American pediatrician and the author or co-author of parenting books. Sears is a celebrity doctor, and has been a guest on various television talk shows. Sears is a proponent of the attachment parenting philosophy, and is most well known for authoring The Baby Book, which popularized that style of parenting.
Toilet training is the process of training someone, particularly a toddler or infant, to use the toilet for urination and defecation. Attitudes toward training in recent history have fluctuated substantially, and may vary across cultures and according to demographics. Many of the contemporary approaches to toilet training favor a behaviouralism- and cognitive psychology-based approach.
A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple substitute given to an infant or toddler to suckle upon between feedings to quiet its distress by satisfying the need to suck when it does not need to eat. Pacifiers normally have three parts: an elongated teat, a handle, and a mouth shield which prevents the child from swallowing or choking on it.
Baby colic, also known as infantile colic, is defined as episodes of crying for more than three hours a day, for more than three days a week, for three weeks in an otherwise healthy child. Often crying occurs in the evening. It typically does not result in long-term problems. The crying can result in frustration of the parents, depression following delivery, excess visits to the doctor, and child abuse.
Marc Weissbluth is an American pediatrician who has written several books on infant sleep. He is a sleep disorders specialist at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Swaddling is an ancient practice of wrapping infants in blankets or similar cloths so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. Swaddling bands were often used to further restrict the infant. Swaddling fell out of favour in the 17th century.
Lactational amenorrhea, also called postpartum infertility, is the temporary postnatal infertility that occurs when a woman is amenorrheic and fully breastfeeding.
On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep is a Christianity-based infant management book written by Gary Ezzo and pediatrician Robert Bucknam in 1993. Baby Wise presents an infant care program which the authors say will cause babies to sleep through the night beginning between seven and nine weeks of age. It emphasizes parental control of the infant's sleep, play and feeding schedule rather than allowing the baby to decide when to eat, play and sleep.
The Safe to Sleep campaign, formerly known as the Back to Sleep campaign, is an initiative backed by the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the US National Institutes of Health to encourage parents to have their infants sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. The target age group of the campaign is 0–1 years of age, because this is when babies are at the greatest risk of experiencing SIDS. Since "Safe to Sleep" was launched in 1994, the incidence of SIDS has declined by more than 50%. However, there has been a rise in infant sleep-related suffocation events. Consequently, the campaign has broadened its goal to focus on safe sleep conditions and further preventative measures.
Tummy time is a colloquialism for placing infants in the prone position while awake and supervised, to encourage development of the neck and trunk muscles and prevent skull deformations.
Harvey Neil Karp, FAAP is an American pediatrician, author, and child development specialist. He is best known for his book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and its accompanying DVD, that use his "5 S's" approach to infant care. He is also the creator of the Snoo, a smart bassinet.
Sleep training are a set of parental intervention techniques with the end goal of increasing nightly sleep in infants and young children, addressing “sleep concerns”, and decreasing nightime signalling. Although the diagnostic criteria for sleep issues in infants is rare and limited, sleep training is usually approached by parent(s) or caregivers self indentifying supposed sleep issues.
Infant feeding is the practice of feeding infants. Breast milk provides the best nutrition when compared to infant formula. Infants are usually introduced to solid foods at around four to six months of age.
Infant crying is the crying of infants as a response to an internal or external stimulus. Infants cry as a form of basic instinctive communication. Essentially, newborns are transitioning from life in the womb to the external environment. Up to 27% of parents describe problems with infant crying in the first four months. Up to 38% identify a problem with their infant crying within the first year. Parents can be concerned about the amount of time that their infant cries, how the infant can be consoled, and disrupted sleeping patterns. Colic is used as a synonym for excessive crying of infants, even though colic may not be the cause of excessive crying.
Melissa Anne Wake MBChB MD FRACP FAHMS is a New Zealand paediatrician and Scientific Director of the Generation Victoria initiative, aiming to create very large, parallel whole-of-state birth and parent cohorts in Victoria, Australia, for Open Science discovery and interventional research. She is Group Leader of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute’s Prevention Innovation Research Group and holds Professorial positions with the University of Melbourne and the University of Auckland.
Infant sleep is an act of sleeping by an infant or a newborn. It differs significantly from sleep during adulthood. Unlike in adults, sleep early in infancy initially does not follow a circadian rhythm. Infant sleep also appears to have two main modes - active, associated with movement, and quiet, associated with stillness - exhibiting distinct neurological firing patterns. Sleep duration is also shorter. As the infant ages, sleep begins to follow a Circadian rhythm and sleep duration increases. Infants nap frequently. Infants are also particularly vulnerable during sleep; they are prone to suffocation and SIDS. As a result, "safe" sleep techniques have been the subject of several public health campaigns. Infant sleep practices vary widely between cultures and over history; historically infants would sleep on the ground with their parents. In many modern cultures, infants sleep in a variety of types of infant beds or share a bed with parents. Infant sleep disturbance is common, and even normal infant sleep patterns can cause considerable disruption to parents' sleep. As a result, there are a wide variety of interventions and products intended to improve infant sleep; however, their efficacy is variable. Infant sleep training is one common intervention for poor infant sleep. Poor infant sleep is linked to maternal depression.
