Preface

Seeing the world through the eyes of a child/infant sounds inspirational. They are little, lovely and defenseless. Pediatrics is the science of taking care of these cute creations. Pediatrics is a branch of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of infants, children and adolescents diseases. As medical sciences are getting more complex with the information explosion, interdisciplinarity is an essential tool to integrate different topics. Therefore, we established an interest group, titled “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” is a comprehensive series of books on infant and adolescent health and diseases. The series features volumes that update readers on the current understanding of basic information and advanced clinical practice in pediatric medicine. Neonatology, as well as different diseases in all subspecialties of pediatrics, including allergy and immunology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology, infectious diseases, nephrology, oncology, pulmonology, rheumatology, neurology, psychiatry and dermatology, are represented in each volume.

“Common Pediatric Diseases: Current Challenges” is the second volume of this book series. The first chapter of this book is a rapid introduction to challenges in the field of pediatrics and child health (Chapter 1). The second chapter discusses the positive and negative outcomes of sexting (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 takes a specific view of integrated care of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. The book contains chapters on the influence of non-genetic transgenerational inheritance on children and adolescents’ development (Chapter 4) and the approach to pediatric genetic epilepsy (Chapter 5). The medical and social outcomes of cardiac diseases are also discussed (Chapter 6). In addition, the book provides updates on meconium-stained newborns (Chapter 7), transient tachypnea of newborns (Chapter 8) and fetal tumors (Chapter 9). Chapter 10 focuses on Autism Spectrum Disorder during infancy and its early symptoms. Last but not least, medical futility controversies and end-of-life care are discussed in Chapter 11.

The book "Updates on Pediatric Health and Diseases" 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 with the opportunity to publish the book.

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