Pediatrics also spelled paediatrics or pædiatrics, is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics 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.
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.
Thiomersal is a mercury compound which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. Anti-vaccination activists promoting the incorrect claim that vaccination causes autism have asserted that the mercury in thiomersal is the cause. There is no scientific evidence to support this claim. The idea that thiomersal in vaccines might have detrimental effects originated with anti-vaccination activists and was sustained by them and especially through the action of plaintiffs' lawyers.
The Institutes for The Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP), founded in 1955 by Glenn Doman and Carl Delacato, provide literature on and teaches a controversial patterning therapy, known as motor learning, which the Institutes promote as improving the "neurologic organization" of "brain injured" and mentally impaired children through a variety of programs, including diet and exercise. The Institutes also provides extensive early-learning programs for "well" children, including programs focused on reading, mathematics, language, and physical fitness. It is headquartered in Philadelphia, with offices and programs offered in several other countries.
Paul Allan Offit is an American pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology, and virology. He is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, former chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases (1992–2014), and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Derrick Lonsdale was a British-born American pediatrician and researcher into the benefits of certain nutrients in preventing disease and psychotic behavior. He was a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (FACN), and also a Fellow of the American College for Advancement in Medicine (FACAM).
Kenneth Lyen is a Singaporean pediatrician, visiting consultant pediatric endocrinologist and a visiting tutor in developmental pediatrics.
Mary Ellen Avery, also known as Mel, was an American pediatrician. In the 1950s, Avery's pioneering research efforts helped lead to the discovery of the main cause of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in premature babies: her identification of surfactant led to the development of replacement therapy for premature infants and has been credited with saving over 830,000 lives. Her childhood, mentors, drive, and education inspired Avery to be the visionary that she was. In 1991 President George H.W. Bush conferred the National Medal of Science on Avery for her work on RDS.
Emily Partridge Bacon was the first physician in Philadelphia to devote her practice exclusively to pediatrics. She introduced numerous innovations in her fifty-year hospital career, including the creation of a "well-baby" clinic, and a counseling service for troubled children. She was also a much-loved teacher and combined her clinical practice with a teaching career at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania for over thirty years.
Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian is a women's and children's hospital at 3959 Broadway, near West 165th Street, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is a part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The hospital treats patients aged 0–21 from New York City and around the world. The hospital features a dedicated regional ACS designated pediatric Level 1 Trauma Center and is named after financial firm Morgan Stanley, which largely funded its construction through philanthropy.
Jane Aronson, D.O. is an osteopathic physician, with expertise in pediatric infectious diseases and adoption medicine.
Jay N. Gordon is an American pediatrician, lecturer, and author. He is well-known within the anti-vaccine movement for his promotion of vaccine hesitancy. He does encourage vaccinating but at the discretion of the parent. He is also a long-time advocate of breastfeeding; he became a member of the International Health Advisory Council of the La Leche League in 2005.
Rahul K. Parikh is an American pediatrician practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and who is also employed by Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek, California, as the associate Physician-in-Chief of Patient Education in the Diablo Service Area. He writes a regular column, called "PopRX", for Salon about various medicine-related topics. He has also written for CNN about how vaccines do not cause autism, and how important he considers it to be for parents to get their children vaccinated, and for the Los Angeles Times about the effectiveness of workplace wellness programs. Parikh has also written an article for The New York Times about neonatal intensive care units and whether or not prematurely-born infants born between 23 and 26 weeks of gestation should be resuscitated.
Wendy Sue Swanson is an American pediatrician, educator and author, known for her Seattle Mama Doc blog.
Wendy K. Chung is an American clinical and molecular geneticist and physician. She is the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of 700 peer-reviewed articles and 75 chapters and has won several awards as a physician, researcher, and professor. Chung helped to initiate a new form of newborn screening for spinal muscular atrophy which is used nationally and was among the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case which banned gene patenting.
Tanya Elizabeth Froehlich is an American pediatrician. She is an associate professor of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Froehlich's research focus is to help doctors properly prescribe ADHD medication for children and focus on how marginalized and disadvantaged youth deal with ADHD compared to their wealthier companions.
Kravis Children's Hospital (KCH) at Mount Sinai is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's hospital located at the Mount Sinai campus in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The hospital has 102 pediatric beds. It is affiliated with The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and is a member of the Mount Sinai Health System. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region.
Valsamma Eapen is a chair of infant, child and adolescent psychiatry at UNSW Sydney. She is a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK.
There is currently no evidence of a cure for autism. The degree of symptoms can decrease, occasionally to the extent that people lose their diagnosis of autism; this occurs sometimes after intensive treatment and sometimes not. It is not known how often this outcome happens, with reported rates in unselected samples ranging from 3% to 25%. Although core difficulties tend to persist, symptoms often become less severe with age. Acquiring language before age six, having an IQ above 50, and having a marketable skill all predict better outcomes; independent living is unlikely in autistic people with higher support needs.
Sophie Rabinoff (1899–1957) was a Jewish pediatrician, public health educator, and researcher. She was known for her contributions to the field of preventative medicine.
