Why Choose a Pediatrician?

A pediatrician is a doctor who focuses on the health of infants, children, and adolescents. Pediatric care starts at birth and lasts through a child’s 18th birthday. Pediatricians prevent, detect and manage physical, behavioral and developmental issues that affect children.

When selecting a doctor for your child, it’s important to be confident in the doctor’s medical expertise and bedside manner when interacting with your child. Beyond those basics, there’s a vital reason to choose a pediatrician over other doctors like family practitioners: A pediatrician’s education, training, and experience focuses on children.

What education does a pediatrician need?

Pediatricians undergo extensive education and training. First, they must get a four-year undergraduate degree. During undergrad, they take pre-medical courses such as biology and chemistry.

Next, pediatricians must attend four years of medical school. In medical school, they take coursework such as anatomy and physiology. In addition, they take part in clinical rotations where they learn about the different areas of medicine. These areas include pediatrics, emergency medicine, neurology, psychiatry and radiology. It’s during these clinical rotations that many doctors decide what they want to specialize in.

If a doctor decides to specialize in pediatrics, they move on to a three-year pediatric residency program. Residency includes extra training in various pediatric specialties such as newborns, newborn intensive care, general pediatrics and developmental-behavioral pediatrics. During residency, pediatricians must gain the knowledge, skills and experience they’ll need to treat a broad range of conditions in children.

How long does it take to become a pediatrician?

Pediatricians must attend at least eight years of schooling. That includes four years of undergraduate school and four years of medical school, plus three years of a pediatric residency.