Preface

Seeing the world through the eyes of a child/infant sounds inspirational. They are little, lovely, and defenseless. Pediatric is the science of taking care of these cute creations. Pediatric is a branch of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of infants, children, and adolescents’ diseases. As the medical sciences are getting more complex with the information explosion, interdisciplinarity is the essential tool to integrate different topics. Therefore, we established an interest group, entitled “Network of Interdisciplinarity in Neonates and Infants (NINI)” in the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), and invited pediatricians and scientists in the field of pediatrics from all over the world to join this multidisciplinary network: https://usern.tums.ac.ir/Group/Info/NINI

The “Updates on Pediatric Health and Disease” series is a comprehensive text regarding childhood and adolescence health and diseases. Neonatology, as well as different diseases in all subspecialties of pediatrics, including pediatric allergy and immunology, pediatric cardiology, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric hematology, pediatric infectious disease, pediatric nephrology, pediatric oncology, pediatric pulmonology, pediatric rheumatology, pediatric neurology, pediatric psychiatry, and pediatric dermatology, will be discussed in different volumes.

“Common Pediatric Diseases: An Updated Review” is the first volume of this book series; in this volume, after a rapid introduction to Pediatric diseases (Chapter 1), pediatric rheumatologic diseases are discussed (Chapter 2). Then, the book provides an update on common oral diseases (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 takes a specific view of Pediatric Metabolic Syndromes. The book also provides some chapters regarding neurologic diseases, including Pediatric Epilepsy Syndromes (Chapter 5), Pediatric Demyelinating Disorder (Chapter 7), and also a diagnostic algorithmic approach to Pediatric Genetic Epileptic Encephalopathies (Chapter 6). It contains several chapters concerning updates of Henoch-Schönlein purpura (Chapter 9), Atopic Dermatitis (Chapter 8), Childhood-Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Chapter 10), Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (Chapter 11), PFAPA- Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis Syndrome (Chapter 12) and Pediatric Hepatoblastoma (Chapter 13).

Updates on Pediatric Health and Disease Book is the result of the valuable contribution of scientists and clinicians from well-known universities/institutes worldwide. I would like to hereby acknowledge the expertise of all contributors for generously devoting their time and considerable effort in preparing their respective chapters. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Bentham Science publication for providing me the opportunity to publish the book.

Finally, I hope that this timely book will be comprehensible, cogent, and of special value for researchers and clinicians who wish to extend their knowledge of Pediatrics.

This book would not have been possible without the continuous encouragement by my family.

I wish to dedicate it to my daughters, Ariana and Arnika, with the hope that we learn enough from today to make a brighter future for the next generation.