Children's Care

Your child’s health and comfort is our priority. We're here to provide care that is kid-friendly and parent-friendly, too.

A pediatrician affiliated with Willis Knighton Health is the first line of defense for your child’s routine health and wellness. The best time to choose your pediatrician is before your baby is born. The pediatrician gets to know you and your child before you have any health needs or emergencies, so your family is comfortable and confident with the care you receive.

If you need to find a pediatrician for your child or if you’re new in town, look for a Willis Knighton pediatrics clinic near your home.

What type of care does a general pediatrician typically deliver?

• Routine well-child examinations, monitoring growth and development
• Treatment of common sicknesses like colds or flu
• Care for chronic disease
• Immunizations

Pediatrics is primary care medicine for infants, children and teens. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends working with a specially trained pediatrician until age 21. However, many children transfer to a family doctor when they are 16 to 17 years old.

Click here to find a Pediatrician

If your child has chronic symptoms that won’t go away, your doctor may recommend a consultation with a specialists. Willis Knighton has specialists and subspecialists that support our children's care services.

• Audiology
• Allergy and Immunology
• Developmental and behavioral pediatrics
• Pediatric endocrinology
• Pediatric gastroenterology
• Pediatric hematology oncology
• Pediatric infectious diseases
• Pediatric intensive care
• Pediatric nephrology
• Pediatric pulmonology
• Pediatric surgery
• Pediatric urology
• Oral Maxillofacial Surgery
• Orthopedics
• Otolaryngology (ear, nose & throat)

Being anxious about surgery is normal, especially when your child is involved. Whether the surgery is a common one like ear tubes or something more complex, your child gets gold star treatment in a hospital dedicated to excellence in pediatric care.

Learn more about Pediatric Surgery

When your child has a serious medical condition or illness, you have one of the most difficult challenges you will ever face as a parent. You can take comfort knowing that the critical care team at Willis Knighton South is dedicated to providing high quality lifesaving medical treatment for children with serious medical conditions and severe illnesses.

Learn more about the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)

You can help your child feel like life is normal with the support of Child Life services at Willis Knighton South, which is home to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and pediatric subspecialists.

Child Life is part of the multidisciplinary team that cares for your child in the hospital. The specialists provide comfort and emotional support to relieve the stress and anxiety of hospital care. They offer educational, therapeutic and developmental interventions to help your child cope with hospitalization.

Willis Knighton’s Child Life services experts are passionate about the health and well-being of our young patients. Here are things they do to support a positive experience for your child:

• Prepare for the procedure using words your child can understand
• Promote relaxation, coping and distraction skills before, during and after medical procedures or surgeries
• Teach coping skills for long-term sickness, injury and/or death
• Offer emotional support for patients, families and siblings during stressful experiences
• Engage in therapeutic play to help your child express emotion, resolve distress and facilitate coping during hospitalization
• Provide opportunities for play in the activity room and other activity areas or at your child’s bedside
• Educate parents and caregivers about child development and response to hospitalization
• Normalize the hospital environment through coordination of community events, parties and seasonal celebrations designed for children and families

When does Child Life get involved?

• My child is nervous about or has questions about an upcoming procedure or test
• My child needs help coping during a procedure or test
• My child’s sibling has concerns about the hospital
• My child had a traumatic experience
• My child is having difficulty coping with hospital or doctor visits
• My child has a long-term condition or was just diagnosed with one
• I have questions about my child’s developmental needs
• I need suggestions for talking to my child about his or her hospital experience

The Willis Knighton Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute provides a variety of pediatric  therapy services including:

• Infant Feeding Program
• NICU Graduate Clinic
• Pediatric Outpatient Services

Learn more about the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute

Shots For Tots is a community service of Willis Knighton Health that’s designed to assure that all children in our community can receive childhood immunizations. 

Learn more about Shots for Tots

Childhood obesity is way too common, especially for children in Louisiana. Besides the extra weight, obesity brings more health risks and psychological effects. If you want a better life and better health for your overweight child, ask your pediatrician for a referral. We’re here to help your child have a healthy future!

Learn more about the Wonder Kids Program

Family involvement is important for your child’s healing. Having your child in the hospital is stressful, and Willis Knighton offers many resources to help parents feel less stressed and more prepared.

Classes for Parents and Kids

Willis Knighton Health offers a variety of classes for parents to be, parents, grandparents and kids.

Click here to view Classes & Events

Information for Parents and Kids

Willis Knighton’s website includes KidsHealth, a special site that shares information written for parents, children and teens. This site deals with typical health and wellness issues and is designed to help you educate your child with articles, videos and games.

Visit KidsHealth

Overnight Accommodations

Willis Knighton offers convenient overnight accommodations at The Arbors short-stay apartments next to the Willis Knighton South campus. These apartments are first-come, first-serve for parents who have a child in NICU or PICU. Please contact your child’s patient advocate to request this service.

Up to 80% of your child’s brain development occurs by age three. It’s important to give your child a positive start in life by introducing him or her to books. Reading benefits their language skills, bonding skills and overall brain skills. Willis Knighton Health supports the national Reach Out and Read program and several of our pediatric clinics offer this service. Newborns who start their healthcare at these Willis Knighton Physician Network clinics can receive up to 10 books up to age five. Reach Out and Read with WK. 

Pediatricians partner with parents in our community through Reach Out and Read. During regular well visits, your child’s medical team shares how:

• Holding books a certain way engages your child
• Interacting with the text and images helps your child follow along with the story
• Reading aloud benefits your child for life

  Your child takes home a new age-appropriate book to keep and use. Book benefits for your child:

• Improves language development
• Helps physical, cognitive and emotional development
• Grows curiosity and memory
• Develops lifelong love of reading

Reach Out and Read is the only national literacy program endorsed by American Academy of Pediatrics. Participating clinics:

Shreveport

• WK Center for Pediatrics - South
• WK Pediatric Health & Wellness
• WK Tots to Teens Pediatric Center

 Bossier City

• WK Internal Medicine & Pediatric Specialists
• WK Preferred Pediatrics