Pediatrician: What Does Their Role Entail?

Pediatrician or general practitioner? When parents see that their children are entering puberty or if they have a teenager, it is normal to ask if they should continue to go to the pediatrician or if they should start going to another doctor.

Although it is assumed that pediatricians deal exclusively with children, they can see patients between 14 and 17 years of age. So if you are not sure about the role of your pediatrician, or if your child should start seeing a GP after a certain age, we will help you clarify all of these questions below.

The roles a pediatrician must fill

A child’s bond with the pediatrician is established from the first days of life. From then on, the pediatrician will be responsible for ensuring his or her health.

During the first months and years of life, children go to the pediatrician four or five times a year, and when adolescence begins, they go once a year unless an incident has occurred.

Pediatricians, of course, play the role of physicians, but they also train the parents in terms of nutrition, disease prevention, and issues that arise in connection with children’s growth stages. Therefore, pediatrics is one of the most complete areas of specialization in medicine.

How often should children go to the pediatrician?

Visits to the pediatrician are planned according to the children’s age and state of health as follows:

• For newborns who do not present any pathology, their first appointment is scheduled for the fifth or tenth day of life.
• Up to the age of six months, the child must go to a control appointment once a month to monitor all changes related to the accelerated growth of this period.

• Between 6 and 12 months, routine visits should take place every two months. Of course, this is only if there is no disease present.
• During the first year of life, there should be visits every three months.
• Between the second and fifth year of life, visits to pediatricians should be arranged every six months.
• From the age of 6 to at least 12 to 14 years, general check-ups should take place once a year.

Pediatricians should be the one who examines children when there is an illness. They will be the most informed because of the deep knowledge they have of the child’s personal and family history, and their knowledge of prescribing the necessary doses of the medicine the child must take from the pathology. They can also refer the child to other specialists when needed.

In several countries, including Spain, pediatric specialists are required to be present in 17-year-olds, but they treat them more for political and social reasons than for medication-related reasons.

Therefore, if your child is over 15 years old, he or she can be treated by a GP. The choice will be made by both the family and the patient.

In Spain, paediatricians treat young people up to the age of 17, and in countries such as Venezuela it can be up to 20 years.

Why do some parents who have teenagers take them to pediatricians?

After the age of 15, the young people no longer need the attention of a pediatrician, and may have an appointment with a general practitioner or with a specialist in connection with the pathology shown.

But why do some parents who have teenagers take them to pediatricians?

The parents’ trust and the relationship they already have with pediatricians make it very difficult for them to accept medical opinions from other doctors that they consider foreign to their child’s life story.

Not only do parents tend to stick to their children’s pediatrician as their only medical reference, but it is also noteworthy that in many cases a relationship of trust has been built between the child and the doctor.

This is a very positive relationship as it allows children to talk and ask questions openly about the concerns they may have about their body when they grow up and when they are teenagers.

Remember that the age that is accepted for children to visit the pediatrician is up to 14 years worldwide. In the case of countries such as Spain, if the young person has a pathology that forces him or her to be admitted to hospital, the age care of the pediatricians will be up to the age at which the child is no longer considered a minor.