Pediatrics

Pediatrics is the specialty of medicine in which practitioners focus on the physical, mental, and social health of children. In focusing on the whole child, pediatricians’ work includes treating [Page 1216]physical illnesses, assessing children’s development, and advocating for children’s well-being. This medical field is critical to the history of childhood in that pediatricians have played increasingly important roles as advisors and experts on children’s health, development, and well-being.

Beginning with a brief history of pediatrics before 1800, this entry traces shifts that have occurred within pediatrics from its formation as a professional field in the mid-19th century. It examines physicians’ response to infant mortality; the rise of pediatric hospitals and subspecialties; preventive care, including vaccines; and treatment. All these shifts have been influenced by broader social ...