New AAP Tool Helps Parents Care for Sick Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has announced the development of a new symptom checker tool that will provide parents with advice about what to do next when their child develops a fever, cough, rash, or sore throat.

The KidsDoc Symptom Checker, available for parents on the AAP site for parents at healthychildren.org, allows parents to select an area of the body and view symptoms that can arise in that particular region. The AAP site then provides parents with a list of symptoms that may point to a particular cause.

The tool also provides information about each section of the body, and indicates how aware children should be of symptoms depending on their age, and whether the symptoms are serious enough to warrant immediate medical attention. Three tabs toward the upper right-hand corner of each page—When to call, Care Advice, Photos— provide additional information for parents.

The KidsDoc Symptom Checker “is based on the clinical protocols used by pediatricians and nurses in 10,000 practices and 400 nurse advice call centers in the U.S. and Canada,” according to the AAP. Parents can also download the Symptom Checker as an iPhone app, either through the AAP website or the Apple store.