Children’s health: what pediatricians say, in their own words

Last updated September 20, 2026.

Read together, the 741 KevinMD posts on children’s health say one thing consistently: the pediatricians writing spend most of their time talking parents down from fear and the system up from neglect. Fever is not the number but how the child feels, an ear infection can wait a day, a baby sleeps alone on its back, and one in five children is obese while the pediatrician who treats them sees 25 patients a day on Medicaid rates that pay less than Medicare. Posts mentioning Medicaid or CHIP rose from 5 percent of the record before 2013 to 10 percent in 2025 and 2026, and posts mentioning obesity or overweight run from 9 to 16 percent in every period. Where pediatricians disagree, on room-sharing, on retail clinics, on whether obesity is a disease, and on whether more Medicaid spending helps, both sides are on this page under their own names.

This page is a maintained record of what pediatricians, other physicians, nurses, and parents have written about children’s health on KevinMD.com, a physician-authored publication founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, a board-certified internal medicine physician in Nashua, New Hampshire. It draws on 741 essays and podcast transcripts with a child, pediatric, infant, teen, or adolescent term in the title, published between September 2004 and September 2026 by 401 named contributors, 516 of the posts bylined by physicians, 34 of them podcast episodes with transcripts, and 6 written anonymously. Of the 741, 155 were published from 2023 onward and 45 in 2026 alone. Every claim is attributed to a named author with the month it was published, quoted in the author’s own words, and linked to the original.

This record is about children as patients. Childhood vaccines are on the Vaccines: what physicians say, in their own words record and posts about them were routed there; children’s and teens’ mental health is a section of the Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words record and posts about it were routed there; physician parents and their children belong to the Women in medicine: what women physicians say, in their own words record. Parents, a psychologist, and nurses are cited at the same weight as physicians and identified as such. Each section opens with a direct answer, then what named authors have said, in the order they said it. Where authors cite figures, the source is named alongside the author and the figures are theirs as of the date they wrote. Contributors who sell services into this subject are identified where they are cited. This is physician opinion and experience, not clinical guidance.

What do pediatricians say about fever, sleep, and everyday illness?

The everyday posts on KevinMD are pediatricians talking parents out of fear: fever phobia, sleep positioners sold to frightened parents, antibiotics for every ear infection, chest X-rays for bronchiolitis. The advice has not changed in fifteen years; what changed is that the 2025 posts ask why safe sleep is easier to follow in some homes than others. Antibiotic appears in 5 percent of posts before 2013 and 2 percent since 2025.

Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in May 2011 that “Products like sleep positioners claim to keep babies on their backs yet go entirely against what we know,” in “How the fear of SIDS keeps infant sleep positioners on the market.” Natasha Burgert, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in August 2011 that “Many parents fear their child getting a fever or have ‘fever phobia.’ I certainly can understand why,” in “Fever in children: 5 facts you must know.” Melissa Arca, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in February 2014 that “it’s often the fever itself that freaks us out more than anything,” in “5 truths about fevers in children.” Roy Benaroch, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in June 2017 that “So for comfort, I think it’s a good idea to treat fever in a child who’s uncomfortable,” in “Ibuprofen or acetaminophen: Which is better for treating your child’s fever?” Roy Benaroch, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in June 2017 of a study contradicting the room-sharing guideline, that in the long run “it will help more parents and babies get a better night’s sleep overall,” in “Where should babies sleep? A pediatrician responds.” Christopher Johnson, MD, a pediatric intensivist, wrote in June 2019 that we now know “for many children another reasonable approach is to wait a day or so,” in “Are antibiotics needed for your child with an ear infection?” Olivia Ostrow, MD and Jennifer Young, MD, pediatric emergency physicians, wrote in December 2023 that “Chest X-rays are not recommended for bronchiolitis,” in “What should you do if your child is diagnosed with bronchiolitis this cold and flu season?” Dr. Tanya Tandon, a pediatrician in the Bronx, wrote in October 2025 that “For single mothers and shelter seekers, co-sleeping often feels like the only option,” in “How pediatricians can address infant mortality in underserved communities.”

What do pediatricians say about pediatric practice?

Pediatricians on KevinMD have written about the economics of their own specialty since 2011, when one warned parents away from retail clinics, and by 2022 the essays say children are sicker, half of pediatricians are burned out, and a practice runs on 25 patients a day at Medicaid rates. The 2026 posts are about who will own the practice next: hospitals, investors, or a direct-pay model.

Roy Benaroch, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in April 2011 that “The retail clinics are staffed by midlevel providers who may have minimal pediatric experience,” in “If you want good pediatric care, stay away from retail clinics.” Andrew Hertz, MD and Keili Mistovich, MD, MPH, pediatricians, wrote in February 2022 that “Children are sicker, and pediatricians have more to manage now than ever before,” and that ‘Our pediatricians are not OK, with nearly half suffering from burnout’, in “Kids are not OK: Health care is failing them.” Trey Williams, MD, MBA, a pediatrician who runs a direct primary care practice, wrote in June 2026 that “I think it is the most underbuilt model in all of primary care,” in “Why pediatric direct primary care belongs at the door.” Paul Hain, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in August 2026 that “Medicaid reimbursement remains substantially lower than Medicare in most states,” in “Why pediatric practice succession models are changing.”

What do physicians say about childhood obesity?

Childhood obesity is the one children’s health subject that appears in every period of this record, and the argument about it moved from soda taxes and willpower to whether obesity is a disease. Physicians cited the same figure for a decade, one in five children, and since 2020 the pediatricians who treat it say the calories-in, calories-out model failed and the stigma did the damage. Obesity or overweight appears in 15 percent of posts before 2013 and 10 percent since 2025.

David B. Nash, MD, MBA, a physician and health policy dean, wrote in January 2011 that “Almost every study that has been done concerning obesity shows a correlation with soda consumption,” in “Childhood obesity and chronic illnesses that result from being overweight.” David L. Katz, MD, a preventive medicine physician, wrote in March 2014 that rather than as a disease “I see it as much like drowning,” in “Has the tide really turned against childhood obesity?” Christopher Johnson, MD, a pediatric intensivist, wrote in January 2018 that “the seemingly inexorable growth of pediatric obesity prevalence seems to have reached a plateau,” in “Childhood obesity is a grave threat to our nation’s health.” Karla Lester, MD and Katherine Lester, a pediatrician who sells weight coaching, and her daughter, wrote in December 2020 that “Life in America is a stigma obstacle course for youth with obesity,” in “When it comes to weight stigma in children and teens, let’s meet in the middle.” Teresa Fuller, MD, PhD, a pediatrician, wrote in April 2022 that in two years of shutdowns the youth obesity rate “took another leap to a current prevalence of 22 percent,” in “Reversing the impact of the pandemic on childhood obesity.” Karla Lester, MD, a pediatrician who sells weight coaching, wrote in September 2022 that “Physicians are not here to fix and solve the epidemic of childhood obesity,” in “Health care’s 3 epic childhood obesity failures.” Callia Georgoulis, a student, wrote in July 2025 that “the oversimplification of obesity into a matter of willpower neglects the complex physiological, psychological, and environmental factors,” in “Why telling kids to eat less and move more fails to address obesity.”

What do physicians say about children with cancer and serious illness?

The serious-illness posts on KevinMD are written by pediatric oncologists, neonatologists, intensivists, and parents, and their subject since 2014 has been survival and what comes after it: an 80 percent cure rate that leaves internists caring for survivors they were never taught about, a generation of catastrophically ill children who would have died as infants, and a home-health system that cannot deliver the newest leukemia drug.

Lisa Diller, MD, a pediatric oncologist, wrote in August 2014 that recent research finds “many internists do not feel comfortable or prepared to care for survivors of childhood cancer,” in “5 things internists should know about treating survivors of childhood cancer.” Lisa Diller, MD, a pediatric oncologist, wrote in September 2015 that “pediatric cancer, once a virtually incurable disease, now enjoys an overall long-term survival rate that tops 80 percent,” in “4 things on the horizon in childhood cancer.” Chad Hayes, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in January 2016 that “My first experience with a dead baby was during the first month I worked in the NICU,” in “Prevent your baby from dying: 9 tips every parent should know.” Wendy A. Rhoades, MD, a pediatric oncologist, wrote in September 2018 that “Technically, childhood cancer is rare compared to adult cancer, but it’s not as rare as you think,” in “10 things a pediatric oncologist wants you to know.” Christine Marie Deeths, MD, a physician and parent, wrote in February 2023 that “A generation ago, my child would have died as an infant, possibly in early childhood, but she would have died,” in “Surviving and thriving: the new reality for chronically ill children.” Holly Cantley, a parent, wrote in April 2024 that the definition of medical child abuse “could leave any parent at risk of being accused, especially a parent searching exhaustively for a diagnosis,” in “Suspicions of medical child abuse delayed my child’s cancer diagnosis.” Alexis Chen Boulter, MD, a pediatric oncologist, wrote in April 2026 that “Without action, one of the greatest breakthroughs in childhood cancer risks widening the inequities we already see in pediatric care,” in “The pediatric home health system is failing children with cancer.”

What do physicians say about child abuse, drowning, and safety?

Physicians on KevinMD write about child safety as a list of preventable deaths: SIDS, drowning, poisoning by cannabis gummies, and abuse, which one intensivist says kills five children a day and which one parent says she was wrongly accused of. The pediatric intensivist who writes most often on the subject has defended the science of shaken baby syndrome against journalists since 2015. Abuse or neglect appears in 15 percent of posts in 2013 to 2016 and 16 percent since 2025.

Alberto Hazan, MD, an emergency physician, wrote in September 2014 citing Childhelp that “five children die every day as a result of child abuse in the United States,” in “‘I want to give up my son’: Is that child abuse?” Christopher Johnson, MD, a pediatric intensivist, wrote in June 2015 that “Shaken baby syndrome was first described in the 1960s to describe the combination of several injuries,” in “The controversy about shaken baby syndrome actually isn’t one at all.” Linda Girgis, MD, a family physician, wrote in April 2018 that “Abused kids learn to survive their parents rather than earn their love,” in “What happens to the kids of child abuse when they grow up?” Chinyere Onyearugbulem, MD, a pediatric intensivist, wrote in May 2019 that “Drowning, after birth defects, is the leading cause of death in children under four years of age,” in “Help stop pediatric drownings.” Roneet Lev, MD, an emergency physician, wrote in February 2023 of a 4-year-old who ate his mother’s cannabis gummies, that he “ended up with marijuana poisoning and in a coma,” in “Candy weed: no protection for marijuana child poisoning.” Bronwen Carroll, MD, a physician, wrote in November 2025 that “our children are far more likely to be sexually abused than to encounter almost any other childhood threat,” in “The childhood risk we never talk about.”

What do physicians say about teenagers?

The teen posts on KevinMD are pediatricians telling parents how to have the conversation, about marijuana, driving, sex, and concussions, and since 2022 they are about substances again: use fell in the pandemic, rebounded after it, and adolescent overdose deaths have doubled since 2019 while fewer than one in 54 adolescents gets medication after one.

Nelson Branco, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in November 2011 that “high on the list is the challenge of talking about important topics like sex, drugs and rock and roll,” in “How to talk with your teen about marijuana.” Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in May 2013 that “Motor vehicle accidents are the number one killer of teens between 16 to 19 years of age,” in “What parents can do to support teen drivers.” Roy Benaroch, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in February 2017 that what you do after a concussion “can make a big difference in how your child recovers,” in “My child has a concussion. What should I do?” Richard Capriola, MBA, a counselor, wrote in January 2022 that “The percentage of teens using illicit substances dropped significantly in 2021 as the pandemic forced them into isolation,” in “The pandemic drives a decline in teen substance abuse.” Chris Buresh, MD, MPH, a pediatric emergency physician, wrote in May 2026 that “overdose deaths among adolescents have more than doubled since 2019,” in “Treating adolescent opioid use disorder with buprenorphine.” Stephen M. Sandelich, MD, a pediatric emergency physician, wrote in May 2026 of his team’s survey, that “43.8 percent of adolescents and 42.6 percent of caregivers thought it should be a routine part of every ED visit,” in “Substance use screening is vital for adolescent health.”

What do physicians say about poverty, Medicaid, and schools?

Since 2017 the children’s health record on KevinMD has been about the system around the child: Medicaid, which funded the miracles and pays the pediatrician less than Medicare; school lunch debt; school start times; immigration raids in the clinic’s halls; and a child neurologist shortage one student calls a policy choice. Medicaid or CHIP appears in 2 percent of posts in 2013 to 2016 and 10 percent since 2025; immigration terms in 4 percent since 2025.

Marvin Wang, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in January 2015 that the evidence shows “earlier school start times effectively restrict an adolescent’s ability to get regular healthful sleep,” in “Kids need more sleep and later school start times.” Lee Sanders, MD, Shetal Shah, MD, Heather Brumberg, MD, MPH, and Vivek Balasubramaniam, MD, pediatricians, wrote in July 2017 that “New medical technologies for children with debilitating (and often rare) conditions are almost universally discovered, tested and improved at hospitals,” in “All children need Medicaid.” Melinda Stoops, PhD, a psychologist, wrote in May 2018 that “the school committee in my city voted to no longer deny middle- and high-school students lunch,” in “Children shouldn’t worry about being hungry in school.” Fiorella Castillo, MD, MSPH, a pediatrician, wrote in February 2025 that “News of immigration raids in schools and whispers of where the immigration agents are stationed flood our clinic’s halls,” in “Advocating for immigrant children: a doctor’s perspective.” Mick Connors, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in April 2025 asking “What if more Medicaid coverage isn’t fixing the problem, but just cementing the status quo,” in “Why Medicaid is failing Black children despite record spending.” Ashley Youngdale, a parent, wrote in May 2026 that she did not know “school districts have the power to ignore medical decisions made by doctors for medically complex children,” in “School nursing for medically complex kids is not guaranteed.” Shaan R. Mody, a student, wrote in July 2026 that “Closing this funding gap is not ambitious policy,” in “The child neurologist shortage is a policy choice.”

What do physicians disagree about?

On where babies sleep, Roy Benaroch, MD, reported a study contradicting the room-sharing guideline and Karen Allen, MD, a pediatrician, wrote in July 2018 that “We must do our part to speak out against dangerous or wrong information,” in “Sleeping with your baby: Mainstream media gets it wrong.” On obesity, David L. Katz, MD, sees drowning rather than disease, and Karla Lester, MD, says physicians are not there to fix it and later chose medication for her own child. On Medicaid, Lee Sanders, MD, Shetal Shah, MD, Heather Brumberg, MD, MPH, and Vivek Balasubramaniam, MD, say the program funded the miracles and Mick Connors, MD, asks whether more coverage cements the status quo. On shaken baby syndrome, Christopher Johnson, MD, says the controversy is not one and the journalists he answers say the convictions were wrong. The record does not resolve these; it dates them.

What would fix it? What physicians propose.

Asked what would fix children’s health care, physicians on KevinMD propose palliative care built into treatment from diagnosis, later school start times, Medicaid that works rather than Medicaid that spends, digital media limits set by parents, a pediatric residency reform that does not shorten training, and clinics that treat immigrant families as safe places.

Joanne Wolfe, MD, MPH, a pediatric palliative care physician, wrote in July 2015 that “we must make such support an integral part of treatment at all stages of children’s illness,” in “Pediatric palliative care: We must do more.” Elham Raker, MD, a physician and parent of a child with long COVID, wrote in December 2024 that “We need to weigh the risk of every treatment against the risk of no treatment,” in “Doctors must rethink ‘do no harm’ to help children with long COVID.” Ronald L. Lindsay, MD, a developmental pediatrician, wrote in January 2026 that “Primary care pediatricians must be held responsible for accurate DBP documentation, coding integrity, and closed-loop follow-up with families,” in “A blueprint for pediatric residency training reform.”

How has the children’s health conversation changed since 2004?

The record starts with Kevin Pho’s short commentaries from 2006 to 2011, 51 of them, counted here but not cited. The 2010 to 2014 posts are the pediatrician bloggers, Roy Benaroch, Wendy Sue Swanson, Claire McCarthy, Natasha Burgert, and Christopher Johnson, answering parents about fever, sleep, and retail clinics; between them they wrote a seventh of the record. The 2015 to 2019 posts add childhood cancer, abuse, and drowning. The pandemic years are about schools, loneliness, and obesity that jumped three points. Since 2023 the record is Medicaid economics, immigration, adolescent overdose, and who owns the practice, and AI is mentioned in 13 percent of the 2025 and 2026 posts.

Two things did not change. Obesity or overweight is named in 9 to 16 percent of posts in every period. And the pediatricians writing still say the same thing about fever they said in 2011.

Term 2004 to 2012 (155 posts) 2013 to 2016 (205 posts) 2017 to 2019 (117 posts) 2020 to 2022 (109 posts) 2023 to 2024 (62 posts) 2025 to 2026 (93 posts)
Obesity or overweight 15 percent 15 percent 9 percent 10 percent 16 percent 10 percent
Vaccine 4 percent 6 percent 7 percent 17 percent 5 percent 9 percent
Autism 5 percent 5 percent 2 percent 2 percent 5 percent 11 percent
Screen time or social media 37 percent 9 percent 8 percent 14 percent 11 percent 13 percent
Medicaid or CHIP 5 percent 2 percent 5 percent 5 percent 3 percent 10 percent
Mental health or anxiety 17 percent 20 percent 22 percent 29 percent 31 percent 24 percent
Abuse or neglect 15 percent 15 percent 15 percent 14 percent 13 percent 16 percent
Antibiotic 5 percent 6 percent 8 percent 2 percent 10 percent 2 percent
Poverty or food insecurity 4 percent 5 percent 12 percent 8 percent 6 percent 11 percent
Immigra 0 percent 0 percent 10 percent 6 percent 3 percent 4 percent
AI 0 percent 0 percent 0 percent 1 percent 18 percent 13 percent

Term frequencies are the share of posts in each period whose text contains the term at least once, computed on the September 20, 2026 corpus of 741 posts with one stored expression per term.

The KevinMD children’s health corpus by the numbers

These figures describe the set of KevinMD posts this page draws on. They are counts of what KevinMD has published, not clinical data.

Measure Value
Posts in the corpus 741
Published 2023 or later 155
Published in 2026 (through September) 45
Named contributors 401
Posts bylined by physicians (MD or DO) 516
Podcast episodes with transcripts 34
Posts bylined by nurses 10
Written anonymously 6
Kevin Pho’s early commentaries, counted but not cited 51
Posts not indexed, counted but not cited 51
Most frequent contributors Christopher Johnson, MD (33); Roy Benaroch, MD (32); Claire McCarthy, MD (21); Wendy Sue Swanson, MD (16); Claudia M. Gold, MD (15)
Title matches routed or excluded 269: 36 vaccine posts to the vaccines record, 33 teen mental health posts to the mental health record, 7 firearm posts excluded, 193 with the subject thin in the text

How this page was built and how it is updated

The corpus was assembled from title searches for child, children, childhood, pediatric, kids, toddler, infant, newborn, baby, teen, adolescent, preschool, NICU, and neonatal. Titles about physician parents, childcare and parental leave, medical students, and adult children were excluded. Vaccine posts were routed to the vaccines record, teen mental health and social media posts to the mental health record, and firearm posts were excluded; posts whose text mentioned the subject fewer than five times were excluded. Term frequencies were computed against the full text of each post. Posts are counted whether or not they are indexed; citations on this page are limited to posts that are indexed and can be verified at the link. 51 posts in the corpus are not indexed, including Kevin Pho’s 2006 to 2011 commentaries and podcast episodes without transcripts; they are counted but not cited. Quotations are taken verbatim from the original posts and were checked against the source text by script. Author credentials are as they appeared in the byline at publication; where the byline gave none, the credential is the one the post itself states. Parents, students, a psychologist, a counselor, and nurses are cited at the same weight as physicians and identified as such. Contributors who sell services into this subject are identified where they are cited: Karla Lester, MD, sells weight coaching, and Trey Williams, MD, MBA, runs a direct primary care practice. Every source is linked in the sentence that cites it, and the full list appears at the end of the page. The closest archive is the Pediatrics tag. Related records: Vaccines: what physicians say, in their own words, Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words, Women’s health: what physicians say, in their own words, Diabetes and obesity: what physicians say, in their own words, and Immigration and medicine: what physicians say about immigrant doctors and immigrant patients, in their own words.

This page is updated as new children’s health essays are published on KevinMD. When it is updated, the date at the top changes, the counts in the tables are recomputed, and new named claims are added to the relevant section. Nothing is removed unless the original post is removed. An author who believes a quotation on this page misrepresents them can write to Kevin Pho and the page will be corrected.

To cite this page: Pho K. Children’s health: what pediatricians say, in their own words. KevinMD.com. Updated September 20, 2026. https://kevinmd.com/childrens-health

The 49 KevinMD posts cited on this page, in order of publication