Pediatrics (
also spelled paediatrics or
pædiatrics) is the branch of
medicine that deals with the medical care of
infants,
children, and
adolescents, and the age limit usually ranges from birth up to 18 years of age (in some places until completion of
secondary education, and until age 21 in the United States). A
medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a
pediatrician, or
paediatrician. The word
paediatrics and its
cognates mean "healer of children"; they derive from two
Greek words: (
pais "child") and (
iatros "doctor, healer"). Pediatricians work both in
hospitals, particularly those working in its specialized subfields such as
neonatology, and as
primary care physicians who specialize in children.
