Pediatrics is a sub-division of the medicine profession that is concerned with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents from birth up to a certain age. The age bracket varies a lot from country to country with some placing the higher limit at 18 while in the US it is at 21. The practitioners who provide the care are referred to as paediatricians or pediatricians. Louisiana pediatrics is highly developed and capable of providing all the care kids need.

The word pediatrician is extracted from Greek and it means healer of children. Many Greek scientists argued that young, growing creatures have a lot of differences from mature ones and hence treatment methods must be different. This field started being developed in mid-19th century by a German pediatrician, Abraham Jacobi. This makes it relatively new. Jacobi was trained in Germany but later practiced in the city of New York.

Concern in this specialty is that congenital defects, development issues, and genetic variance in growing individuals are more important than they are in grown-ups. Another issue separating between adult and pediatric medicine is that children are minors under US jurisdictions and are therefore not allowed to make certain decisions. That is the reason why pediatric activities consider issues like informed consent, guardianship, legal responsibility, and privacy.

This in essence means that the pediatrician treats parents or family rather than the kid. In the US, pediatricians are normally primary care physicians who are specialized in treatment, study, diagnosis, and prevention of medical and emotional conditions in kids. They not only provide medical services but also emotional support.

The major responsibilities of these specialists are minimizing mortality in children and infants, fostering healthy lifestyles, easing difficulties endured with terminal conditions, and controlling infectious diseases. They perform diagnosis and treatment of malignancies, injuries, dysfunctions and organic diseases, infections, and genetic defects. Apart from handling physical health, they also prevent, detect, and manage other issues. Such issues sometimes include depression, social stresses, and development, behavioral and functional disorders.

Different countries train pediatricians differently. Depending on institutional rules both graduate and undergraduate may be accepted into universities to study pediatric courses. Pediatric courses mostly take 4 or 5 years on lower side. One qualifies for licensure once they complete their degree education. The length of time needed in further training is dictated by the field of specialty. The time however ranges from 4 to 11 years but can be longer in some cases.

There are many other subspecialties in pediatrics that one can specialize in. They include pediatric cardiology, dermatology, critical care, hematology, nephrology, oncology, ophthalmology, neonatology, adolescent medicine, nephrology, rheumatology, psychiatry, infectious disease, gastroenterology, endocrinology, and pulmonology. Others include and pediatric emergency medicine, allergy and immunology, and child abuse. Primary care requires least time for further training.

The length of time required for one to train and receive certification in different subspecialties varies. The level of additional training required is also different. With the right training, one can be able to specialize in several fields. Pediatrics is a highly collaborative field that needs specialists to work together with other professionals for the well being of kids.