Who is a pediatrician?
A pediatrician is a healthcare provider who treats infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. Pediatric care begins before conception and continues through the pregnancy. More often than not, they are the first people parents go to when their child is sick. A primary care pediatrician must be skilled at treating common childhood conditions, from ear infections to minor injuries.
Pediatricians can treat people until they turn 21, but this is not a strict age limit. The practice of setting an age limit for pediatric care is heavily discouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics, as they believe that the care is dependent on an individual's physical and mental demands. Children undergo rapid physical, emotional, and cognitive changes as they grow. This fact is well-understood by pediatricians, so they evaluate a child's health status based on the ranges acceptable for their age.
To practice as a pediatrician, an individual must graduate from medical school and complete a three-year residency program in pediatrics. Some choose to go for additional training in a subspecialty. To be board-certified, they must pass stringent American Board of Pediatrics exams.
What are the different subspecialties of a pediatrician?
Many pediatricians may work as primary care doctors who perform regular health and wellness checkups. Also, they may diagnose and treat various general health conditions, provide vaccinations, and offer appropriate health guidance to young people and their parents/caregivers.
Other pediatricians may specialize in treating specific medical disorders or age groups. These subspecialties include the following:
- Adolescent medicine specialists focus on providing care during adolescence from ages 11 to 21.
- Child abuse pediatricians have specialized training, experience, and skills to evaluate a child who may have experienced abuse or neglect.
- Critical care pediatricians facilitate teams of healthcare specialists who treat children in precarious or essential health conditions. They typically work in hospital-based intensive care units (ICUs).
- Developmental behavioral pediatricians assess the behavioral and learning development of children and teenagers.
- Neonatal-perinatal pediatricians treat infants before, during, and after delivery. They also provide care for premature and critically sick newborns.
- Pediatric cardiologists diagnose and treat various heart ailments in children. Many work closely with heart surgeons to decide the best treatment plans.
- Pediatric endocrinologists focus on the endocrine system and the hormones produced by it. They treat various illnesses in children, including diabetes.
- Pediatric gastroenterologists focus on the health of a young person's digestive system.
- Pediatric nephrologists specialize in treating disorders affecting a child's urinary system, including urinary tract infections and kidney disease.
- Pediatric neurologists treat and manage neurological disorders in children. Neurological conditions that present during childhood may persist through adulthood. They oversee their patients' care from diagnosis through adolescence.
- Pediatric oncologists diagnose and treat different kinds of cancer in children.
- Pediatric pulmonologists cater to children with breathing conditions and lung diseases.
- Pediatric rheumatologists treat childhood musculoskeletal disorders, including juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and chronic pain.
What are some illnesses commonly affecting children?
Young children fall sick frequently as they do not have the mature immune system to fight off exposure to new environments and pathogens. They also spread germs quickly because they have yet to learn good hygiene habits, such as washing their hands or covering their mouths and nose when sneezing or coughing. All of these factors can contribute to these common childhood illnesses:
- Sore throat: Different viruses mainly cause sore throat. Typical symptoms include a painful and inflamed throat, red or yellow patches on the throat, cough, hoarse voice, red or itchy eyes, sleepiness, irritability, and decreased appetite.
- Common cold: This is a highly contagious viral nose and throat infection. It can cause symptoms like stuffy or runny nose, thick or watery nasal discharge, sneezing, sore throat, headache, fever, chills, fatigue, watery eyes, and muscle aches.
- Flu: A type of virus known as influenza causes flu, an illness affecting the air passages of the lungs. It most commonly occurs during winter and can cause high fever, headache, sore throat, worsening cough, tiredness, severe body ache, and runny or stuffy nose.
- Sinusitis: When fluid builds up in the nasal passages around the nose (sinuses), it becomes a hotspot for bacteria and viruses to thrive, causing a sinus infection. Sinusitis may be acute (lasting less than 12 weeks), chronic (lasting more than 12 weeks), or recurrent (3 or more acute sinus episodes in a year). Common symptoms include pain in different areas of the face, nasal congestion, loss of smell, runny nose, thick-colored discharge, sneezing, fever, fatigue, and cough.
- Ear infection: Common colds or other upper respiratory tract infections can cause bacteria or viruses to travel to the middle ear behind the eardrum and infect it. It can lead to ear pain, fever, irritability, loss of appetite, and trouble sleeping.
A few other infections among children include bronchitis, conjunctivitis or pink eye, skin infections, chicken pox, urinary tract infections, and gastroenteritis. Knowing the symptoms and seeking help from the best pediatrician near you is essential for the timely management of these conditions.
What is the role of a pediatrician?
Pediatricians execute diverse health services ranging from health and wellness screenings to managing complex medical ailments.
They typically perform the following procedures:
- Diagnosing and treating various medical disorders in children
- Evaluating a child's physical, emotional, and cognitive development
- Physical evaluations
- Prescribing medications like antibiotics and pain relievers
- Providing parents with information about their child's health, safety, nutrition, and fitness needs
- Providing vaccinations
- Treating injuries such as fractures or dislocations
Sometimes, a primary care pediatrician might lack the credentials or expertise to treat complex medical illnesses and will refer the family to an appropriate pediatric specialist for additional testing and treatment.
How do you find the best pediatrician near you in Beaverton, OR?
Does your child fall sick constantly? Are you a parent struggling with your newborn's nutritional and physical needs? If so, a good pediatrician can help you by providing your child with the best treatment and you with the most helpful information. With Zocdoc, you can easily find the most suitable pediatrician in Beaverton that accepts your insurance plan.
Perform a search that mentions your location (Beaverton, Oregon), doctor specialty (pediatrician), insurance plan, and desired appointment date. A comprehensive list of medical and healthcare professionals will appear based on your search criteria. If you need help with your insurance plan, use the Zocdoc insurance detector.
At Zocdoc, transparency is of utmost value. Hence, each pediatrician's profile will include a brief introduction, educational qualifications, practice location, visit reasons, and, most importantly, patient reviews and ratings.
You can also filter out your results by gender if you are looking for a preferred gender pediatrician in Beaverton. Video appointments are also an option to go for before an in-person visit. You can book one by looking for a purple video icon on pediatrician's profiles or filtering the video appointment selection.
Once you find the best pediatrician near you, book an appointment via Zocdoc—it is easy, secure, and 100% free!
Pediatrician statistics in Beaverton, OR
The American Board of Pediatrics in 2022 notified that there are about 680 pediatricians in a population of around 861,351 people under 18. This number indicates a rate of 78.90 pediatricians per 100,000 children. Furthermore, Washington County (Beaverton) has the second highest count of pediatricians in Oregon, i.e., 119. They have a population of approximately 131,757 people under 18 and a rate of 9.0 pediatricians per 100,000 children.
As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oregon had a mortality rate of nearly 22.4 per 100,000 people aged 1 to 19 between 2018 and 2020. Children aged 15-19 showed the highest mortality rate of about 49.3.
Sources
American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine
Cleveland Clinic[1]
Medical News Today
The American Board of Pediatrics
America's Health Rankings
WebMD
HealthyChildren.org
Children's Hospital of Orange County
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Stanford Medicine Children's Health[1]
Stanford Medicine Children's Health[2]
Cleveland Clinic[2]
