Pediatric & Neonatal Abbreviations
51 abbreviations · part of Medical Abbreviations
Abbreviations from newborn and NICU care, infant sleep safety, newborn screening, growth and development, common childhood illnesses, child protection and the childhood immunization schedule. They appear in delivery room records, NICU progress notes, well-child visit templates and vaccine records. Vaccine abbreviations follow the CDC's standardized list, in which capitalization carries meaning: DTaP for young children contains full-strength diphtheria and pertussis components, while the adolescent Tdap contains reduced amounts.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AGE | Acute gastroenteritis | Sudden inflammation of the stomach and intestines, usually viral (norovirus or rotavirus), causing vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes fever. |
| AHT | Abusive head trauma | Inflicted injury to the skull or brain of an infant or young child by shaking, impact or both, often causing subdural hemorrhage, retinal hemorrhages and brain injury. |
| ALTE | Apparent life-threatening event | Older term, defined at a 1986 NIH consensus conference, for an episode frightening to an observer involving some combination of apnea, color change, limpness, choking… |
| APGAR | Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration (Apgar score) | Quick assessment of a newborn's condition at 1 and 5 minutes after birth, scoring skin color, heart rate, reflex irritability, muscle tone and breathing from 0 to 2… |
| BRUE | Brief resolved unexplained event | Event in an infant under one year, lasting less than a minute and now resolved, involving one or more of: color change to blue or pale, absent or irregular breathing… |
| CCHD | Critical congenital heart disease | Heart defects that require surgery or catheter intervention in the first year of life, such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome and transposition of the great arteries. |
| DD | Developmental delay | Significant lag in reaching milestones in one or more areas: gross motor, fine motor, speech and language, social-emotional or cognitive skills. |
| DOL | Day of life | Number used in NICU and newborn notes to track an infant's age in days, guiding feeding advances, lab timing, medication dosing and screening schedules. |
| DTaP | Diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine | Combination vaccine given to children under seven in five doses, at 2, 4 and 6 months, 15–18 months and 4–6 years, protecting against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping… |
| EI | Early intervention | Publicly funded services for infants and toddlers from birth to age three with developmental delays or disabilities, including speech, physical and occupational therapy… |
| ELBW | Extremely low birth weight | Birth weight under 1,000 g (about 2 lb 3 oz), usually in babies born before about 28 weeks. |
| FASD | Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders | Range of lifelong conditions caused by alcohol exposure before birth, including fetal alcohol syndrome, with distinctive facial features, growth deficiency and brain… |
| FTT | Failure to thrive | Inadequate weight gain or growth in an infant or young child, typically defined as weight below the 2nd percentile or a fall across two major percentile lines. |
| GDD | Global developmental delay | Significant delay in two or more developmental domains in a child under five, used when the child is too young for reliable intelligence testing. |
| GER | Gastroesophageal reflux (infant) | Passage of stomach contents into the esophagus, common and normal in healthy infants, causing frequent spitting up that peaks around four months and usually resolves by… |
| HepA | Hepatitis A vaccine | Inactivated vaccine given as two doses six months apart, starting between 12 and 23 months, protecting against hepatitis A, a liver infection spread through… |
| HepB | Hepatitis B vaccine | Vaccine that prevents hepatitis B infection, given in a series beginning at birth. |
| HFMD | Hand, foot and mouth disease | Common contagious viral illness of children under five, usually caused by coxsackievirus A16 or enterovirus 71, with fever, painful mouth sores and a rash on the palms… |
| Hib | Haemophilus influenzae type b (vaccine) | Bacterium that, before routine vaccination, was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in US children under five, also causing epiglottitis and pneumonia. |
| HSP | Henoch-Schönlein purpura | The most common vasculitis of childhood, caused by IgA deposits in small blood vessels, producing raised purple spots (palpable purpura) on the legs and buttocks, joint… |
| IPV | Inactivated poliovirus vaccine | Injected polio vaccine containing killed poliovirus, given in four doses at 2 months, 4 months, 6–18 months and 4–6 years. |
| KD | Kawasaki disease | Acute vasculitis of young children, mostly under five, presenting with five or more days of fever plus features such as red eyes, cracked lips and strawberry tongue… |
| LBW | Low birth weight | Birth weight under 2,500 g (about 5 lb 8 oz), regardless of gestational age, as defined by the WHO. |
| MAS | Meconium aspiration syndrome | Breathing problem in newborns, usually at term or after, who inhale meconium-stained amniotic fluid before or during birth, causing airway blockage, inflammation and… |
| MenACWY | Meningococcal conjugate vaccine (serogroups A, C, W and Y) | Vaccine protecting against four groups of Neisseria meningitidis bacteria, which cause meningitis and bloodstream infection. |
| MenB | Meningococcal serogroup B vaccine | Vaccine protecting against serogroup B meningococcal disease, a cause of outbreaks on college campuses. |
| MIS-C | Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children | Serious inflammatory condition that develops in some children two to six weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection, with fever, abdominal pain, rash, red eyes and involvement of… |
| MMR | Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine | Live combination vaccine given in two doses, at 12–15 months and 4–6 years, that is about 97 percent effective against measles after both doses. |
| MMRV | Measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine | Live combination vaccine adding chickenpox protection to MMR in a single shot, licensed in the US in 2005. |
| MSUD | Maple syrup urine disease | Inherited disorder in which the body cannot break down the branched-chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine, leading to toxic buildup, poor feeding, lethargy… |
| NAS | Neonatal abstinence syndrome | Withdrawal syndrome in newborns exposed in the womb to opioids and sometimes other substances, causing irritability, high-pitched crying, tremors, poor feeding, sleep… |
| NBS | Newborn screening | Public health program that tests babies shortly after birth, usually 24–48 hours, for serious treatable conditions using a heel-prick blood spot, plus hearing and pulse… |
| NEC | Necrotizing enterocolitis | Serious intestinal disease of mainly premature infants in which portions of the bowel become inflamed and die, causing feeding intolerance, abdominal distension, bloody… |
| NOWS | Neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome | Term for withdrawal in newborns specifically after prenatal opioid exposure, a subset of neonatal abstinence syndrome. |
| OFC | Occipitofrontal circumference | Measurement of head size around the widest part of the skull, from the forehead to the back of the head, plotted on growth charts at every well-child visit through… |
| PCV | Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine | Vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae given to infants at 2, 4 and 6 months with a booster at 12–15 months, and to older adults. |
| PKU | Phenylketonuria | Inherited metabolic disorder in which the body cannot break down the amino acid phenylalanine, which builds up and damages the brain. |
| PPHN | Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn | Failure of the lung blood vessels to relax normally after birth, so blood continues to bypass the lungs and the baby remains severely low on oxygen. |
| PVL | Periventricular leukomalacia | Injury and softening of the white matter around the brain's ventricles, mainly in premature infants, caused by reduced blood flow and inflammation. |
| ROP | Retinopathy of prematurity | Abnormal growth of blood vessels in the developing retina of premature infants that can lead to retinal detachment and blindness if severe. |
| RV | Rotavirus vaccine | Oral vaccine that protects infants against rotavirus, once the leading cause of severe diarrhea and dehydration in young children. |
| SBS | Shaken baby syndrome | Older term for brain injury inflicted by violently shaking an infant, causing bleeding around the brain and in the retinas. |
| SIDS | Sudden infant death syndrome | Sudden, unexplained death of an infant under one year old, usually during sleep, that remains unexplained after a full investigation including autopsy, death scene… |
| SUID | Sudden unexpected infant death | Umbrella term for any sudden, unexpected death of an infant under one year, explained or unexplained, including SIDS, accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed… |
| T21 | Trisomy 21 | Chromosomal condition caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21, also called Down syndrome, featuring intellectual disability, characteristic facial features and higher… |
| TcB | Transcutaneous bilirubin | Noninvasive estimate of a newborn's bilirubin level obtained by shining light on the skin with a handheld meter, used to screen for jaundice before discharge. |
| TTN | Transient tachypnea of the newborn | Mild, temporary breathing difficulty in the first hours after birth caused by slow clearance of fetal lung fluid, producing rapid breathing that usually resolves within… |
| VAR | Varicella vaccine | Live vaccine that prevents chickenpox, given in two doses at 12–15 months and 4–6 years, and to adolescents and adults without immunity. |
| VFC | Vaccines for Children program | US federal program that provides vaccines at no cost to children 18 and younger who are Medicaid-eligible, uninsured, underinsured or American Indian or Alaska Native. |
| VLBW | Very low birth weight | Birth weight under 1,500 g (about 3 lb 5 oz), affecting about 1 percent of US births but accounting for a large share of infant deaths. |
| WCC | Well-child check | Routine preventive visit for infants, children and adolescents covering growth, development, physical exam, vaccinations, screening tests and anticipatory guidance. |
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