INTRODUCTION
Pediatrics is the treatment of children in a medical setting. It covers the care of children from the ages of birth to 18. The word pediatrics means “healer of children”; and stems from the Greek words pais=child, and iatros=healer. Pediatrics is a fairly new specialty, it developed in the mid 1800’s. Before this time, children were often treated the same as adults. Pediatrics is a very important aspect of healthcare. We will discover where Pediatrics began, and what the future holds for treating our children.
HISTORY OF PEDIATRICS
Definition
The history of pediatrics is a fairly new specialty, dating back roughly 200 years. Although founded in the early 1800’s, many earlier writings were noted about care of children. Care for children evolved in the early 1800’s, as the need arose to provide more specialized care. Germany and France were two of the founding countries for pediatrics. America soon followed with this way of medically treating children. The “father” of pediatrics in America is Dr. Abraham Jacobi, a German pediatrician. He set up his specialty in New York at the New York Medical College in 1861 where he wrote several journals and created several pediatric departments in New York hospitals.
Several specialized doctors emerged, and created many practices devoted to the study and treatment of children’s health. During the first 50 years of the 1900’s in the U.S., many facilities opened. Free clinics for children were organized in many cities.
Definition of Care
Children we often seen as small adults, and were often treated as such. Unfortunately with this thinking, they were often over medicated, or misdiagnosed. Children’s bodies function much differently than adults. Their organs are not capable of processing the same amount of medications or wastes. Their systems can react toxins in a very detrimental way, and can cause death or severe impairment.
FUTURE OF PEDIATRICS
Positive Change
Over...