Child healthcare and child well-being: From the past to the future

Abstract

Since the birth of modern pediatrics in the late nineteenth century, the role of medical professionals has evolved. Initially, the care of children as a medical specialty was primarily focused on combating infectious diseases and malnutrition. As these burdens lessened, attention turned to �new morbidities.� These included threats to children�s health and well-being in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods - issues such as violence, drug and alcohol use, obesity, divorce, teen pregnancy, and child abuse. The Ecological Model of Human Development developed by Bronfenbrenner in the late 1970s presented a framework of interrelated domains (or systems) which influenced children�s health and development. This framework was recently adapted by the American Academy of Pediatrics in its EcoBioDevelopmental (EBD) framework for promoting child health and preventing disease. In this newish context, the role of the pediatric professional more fully encompasses psychosocial and public health issues pertaining to children�s health and well-being. Pediatry is the science of the young. The young are the future makers and owners of the world. The physical, intellectual, and moral conditions will decide whether the glove will become more Cossack or more Republican, more criminal or more righteous. For their education and training and capabilities, the� [pediatrician] as the representative of medical science and art should become responsible. Medicine is concerned with the new individual before he is born, while he is being born, and after�It is not enough, however, to work at the individual bedside and in the hospital. In the near or dim future, the pediatrician is to sit in and control school boards, health departments, and legislatures. He is the legitimate advisor to the judge and the jury, and a seat for the physician in the councils of the republic is what the people have a right to demand. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014.