Essential Paediatrics and Child Health is a comprehensive and practical guide to paediatric disorders as they present to the student and practitioner, offering step-by-step guidance on symptom assessment, history taking, physical examination, investigation and diagnosis, management and treatment, patient education, follow-up and prognosis. With full-colour images and a range of unique and innovative learning features, this completely revised new edition of the award-winning book Paediatrics and Child Health will prove an invaluable resource for medical students and junior doctors on their journey through contemporary paediatrics.

• Organises paediatric disorders into system-based chapters for easy navigation, with symptom-based and integrative discussions of all the important diseases and disabilities in paediatrics


• Combines up-to-date descriptions of the latest in basic and clinical science with the core competencies expected of students in paediatric rotations


• Self-directed learning is made easy by means of navigation diagrams, tables, key-point and "at-a-glance" boxes, links to guidelines and other summary aids


• Sections on student experience, self-assessment, doing well in paediatric clinical placements and preparing for examinations and OSCEs


• Includes a completely new introduction with perspectives on the nature of paediatrics and how best to become engaged and immersed within it, and new content on communication, national guidelines, imaging techniques, genetics and epigenetics, prescribing for children toxicology, the latest advances in diagnosing and treating disease, and much more


• Provides a companion website containing physical examination instruction videos, a complete set of interactive patient scenarios and multiple-choice questions

Essential Paediatrics and Child Health is the ideal companion for medical students and junior doctors to succeed in their studies and clinical practice.

Professor Mary Rudolf is Head of the Department of Population Health, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Safed, Israel, and Visiting Professor of Child Health, University of Leeds, UK.

Professor Anthony Luder is Director of the Department of Paediatrics at Ziv Medical Centre and Special Projects Advisor, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Safed, Israel.

Dr Kerry Jeavons is Consultant in Paediatric Medicine, Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Yorkshire, UK.

Foreword vii

Preface to the fourth edition ix

Acknowledgements xi

How to get the best out of your textbook xiii

Introduction: Doing well in paediatrics 1

Part 1: About children

1 Nature and nurture 9

2 Health care and health promotion 27

3 Children with long-term medical conditions 45

Part 2: A paediatric tool kit

4 Communicating with children, their families and colleagues 61

5 History taking and clinical examination 67

6 Developmental assessment 99

7 Investigations and their interpretation 107

8 Prescribing for children 123

Part 3: An approach to problem-based paediatrics

9 The febrile child 133

10 Respiratory disorders 159

11 Gastrointestinal disorders 183

12 Cardiac disorders 217

13 Neurological disorders 229

14 Development and neurodisability 251

15 Growth, endocrine and metabolic disorders 277

16 Musculoskeletal disorders 307

17 Renal and urinary tract disorders 319

18 Genitalia 337

19 Dermatology and rashes 345

20 Haematological disorders 371

21 Emotional, behavioural and educational problems 381

22 Social paediatrics 391

23 Emergency paediatrics 399

24 The newborn 427

25 Adolescence and puberty 455

Part 4: Testing your knowledge

26 Practice MCQ and examination questions 471

Multiple choice questions 472

Answers to multiple choice questions 484

Practice examination papers 486

Answers to practice examination papers 492

Index 495