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Pediatrics (also spelled paediatrics or pædiatrics) is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents, and the age limit usually ranges from birth up to 18 (in some places until completion of secondary education, and until age 21 in the United States).
A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician. The word paediatrics and its cognates mean "healer of children"; they derive from two Greek words: παῖς (pais "child") and ἰατρός (iatros "doctor, healer").
In the United States, a pediatrician is often a primary care physician who specializes in children, whilst in the Commonwealth a paediatrician in paediatrics but generally not as a primary general practitioner.