Pediatrics

PEDIATRICS

Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that caters for the medical needs of infants, children, and adolescents. Normally, doctors recommend that people be under pediatric care up to the age of 21. A medical doctor who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician. The word pediatrics mean healer of children Pediatricians work in hospitals, particularly those working in its subspecialties (e.g. neonatology), and as outpatient primary care physicians.

There are subsets of pediatric care and each is a subspecialty that addresses specific medical issues and requires a particular set of talents and interests.

Some common pediatric subspecialties include:

• Neonatology: They care for the most delicate patients in the medical field: infants. These physicians save the lives of infants born prematurely or with birth defects, infections, and a host of other complications. They monitor and treat infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).Neonatologists also provide assistance during high-risk deliveries and help medical teams mitigate any potentially threatening issues and anomalies detected during pregnancies.
• Pediatric Cardiology: Pediatric cardiologists treat the extensive suite of complex conditions that can affect children's hearts, including defects present at birth, acquired heart diseases like Kawasaki's, and rheumatic heart disease. These physicians see patients of all ages, from babies to young adults. Their work also informs the prevention of cardiac diseases linked to childhood obesity.
• Pediatric Hematology/Oncology: The pediatric hematologist/oncologists is responsible for diagnosing and treating childhood cancer, pediatric hematologist/oncologists save and improve the lives of their patients. Due to the long-term nature of cancer treatment, pediatric hematologist/oncologists often form strong bonds with their patients and remain part of their lives after treatment.
• Pediatric Surgery: Adult surgeons focus primarily on one area of expertise, however, a pediatric surgeon performs a variety of procedures on patients of all ages. Pediatric surgeons receive extensive training to gain fluency in multiple procedures that incorporate a range of biological systems and surgical techniques. These surgeons repair birth defects, mend serious wounds, perform transplantations, and more.
• Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Critical Care: These physicians see children in need of urgent care. This may be as a result of any cause or condition imaginable, including seizures, accidents, poisonings, and more. In just a day, these agile practitioners need to jump from condition to condition, and they rarely know what to expect next. They typically work in emergency room settings and usually have unfettered access to extensive resources for treating any issue.
• Pediatric Infectious Diseases: Pediatric infectious disease specialists care for children sick from bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. Young and vulnerable, children sometimes suffer severe complications from well-known illnesses, including measles, rubella, and chickenpox. Pediatric infectious disease specialists pay careful attention to symptoms to identify and treat a range of illnesses and avoid potentially devastating complications.
• Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Medicine: They help children and families manage the emotional and physical demands of life-threatening illness. Palliative care begins with diagnosis to ensure the highest quality of life throughout treatment. If an illness proves terminal, then palliative care strives to eliminate the pain and increase comfort for children suffering from an incurable illness or genetic disorder.
• Pediatric Pulmonology: Pediatric pulmonologists solve medial problems related to the respiratory system. These physicians see children of all ages suffering from chronic asthma, cystic fibrosis, apnea, and a range of other diseases that affect the lungs and significantly reduce a child's quality of life.
• Adolescent Medicine: Adolescent medicine specialists are trained to address the range of issues particular to growing patients with rapidly changing bodies, usually those in the 12-25 age bracket. These physicians frequently deal with concerns related to sexual health, eating disorders, sports medicine, chronic fatigue, and more.

Each pediatric subspecialty plays a unique role in improving pediatric health outcomes and inspiring hope for a happy, healthy future for every child.

IMPORTANCE OF PAEDIATRIC CARE

Pediatricians are the doctors who are specialized in treating children of age group from newborn to adolescence. They specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital diseases, infectious diseases and chronic medical conditions that occur during childhood.

Pediatricians address child health issues and can easily understand how different illnesses and conditions can affect a child's health, general wellness and intellectual ability.

• Child Health Assessment: Pediatric care starts at the infant stage for the child. They provide the vaccination chart that has to be observed and administered as per the age to immunize the child from life-threatening infections. They also provide developmental growth chart and milestones to be achieved by the child at every stage of his/her childhood. This would help every parent to identify the child's growth and development and address any sort of underlying health condition to prevent any health issues in the later part of a kid's life.
• Treating Chronic Illness: Any underlying health condition in a child that is not treated at the initial stage may affect their normal wellbeing in the long run. Chronic health conditions and congenital health conditions should be treated in the childhood under the supervision of specialists so as to help the child lead a better life. Certain mental health conditions when identified and treated at the right time would definitely help the child enjoy his lifestyle like any other child. Parents will have to understand the importance of their child's wellbeing right from the time their baby is born.
• Child Nutrition and Physical Wellness: Pediatricians advise you with the best child nutrition tips and diet that helps the child meet its nutritional requirements and achieve the right growth and development. If the plan is to include all the nutrient foods in the child's diet without skipping immunizations, then the child's health, both physical and mental is assured.

Pediatric diseases are the diseases which will affect a child during the period of childhood. Some of the pediatric diseases include:

• Anemia: Anemia is a condition in which one lacks enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to the body's tissues. Having anemia can make a person feel tired and weak.
• Asthma: Asthma is a condition in which the airways narrow and swell and may produce extra mucus. This can make breathing difficult and trigger coughing, a whistling sound when breathing out and shortness of breath
• Chickenpox: Chickenpox is an infection that is caused by the varicella-zoster virus. It causes an itchy rash with small, fluid-filled blisters. Chickenpox is highly contagious to people who have not had the disease or been vaccinated against it.
• Diphtheria: Diphtheria is a serious infection caused by strains of bacteria called Corynebacterium diphtheria that make toxin. It can lead to difficult breathing, heart failure, paralysis, and even death.
• Leukemia: Leukemia is cancer of the body's blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic system. Leukemia usually involves the white blood cells which are potent infection fighters. In people with leukemia, the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells, which don't function properly.
• Measles: Measles is a highly contagious illness caused by a virus that replicates in the nose and throat of an infected child or adult. Then, when someone with measles coughs, sneezes or talks, infected droplets spray into the air, where other people can inhale them.
• Mumps: Mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus known as a paramyxovirus. In the absence of immunization, mumps usually occurs in childhood.
• Pneumonia: Pneumonia is an infection that inflames the air sacs in one or both lungs. The air sacs may fill with fluid or pus (purulent material), causing cough with phlegm or pus, fever, chills, and difficulty breathing. A variety of organisms, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, can cause pneumonia.
• Polio - Poliomyelitis: is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can infect a person's spinal cord, causing paralysis.
• Tuberculosis: Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that mainly affects the lungs. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are spread from one person to another through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes.
• Whooping cough: Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory disease. It is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. This condition is known for uncontrollable, violent coughing which often makes it hard to breathe.
• Fever: A fever is a temporary increase in body temperature, often due to an illness. Having a fever is a sign that something out of the ordinary is going on in your body.
• Down's syndrome: A condition in which a person has an extra chromosome. Chromosomes are small “packages of genes in the body. They determine how a baby's body forms during pregnancy and how the baby's body functions as it grows in the womb and after birth. Typically, a baby is born with 46 chromosomes.
• Dental caries: Dental caries, is sometimes referred to as tooth decay or cavities. When we eat certain foods, the bacteria on the teeth breaks them down and produces acids that have the ability to seriously damage the hard tissues of the tooth. This eventually results inthe formation of dental caries or cavities.
• Cystic fibrosis: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited disorder that causes severe damage to the lungs, the human digestive system and other organs in the body. This disease affects mainly the cells that produce mucus, sweat and digestive juices.
• Candidiasis: Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by a yeast (which is a type of fungus) called Candida. The most common species of Candida is Candida albicans which can cause infection in people. Candida normally lives on the skin and inside the body, in places such as the mouth, throat, gut, and vagina, without causing any problems.
• Cancer: Cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body's cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues. Cancer can start anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells.
• Bronchiolitis: Bronchiolitis is a common lung infection in young children and infants. It causes inflammation and congestion in the small airways (bronchioles) of the lung.