Opinion: I’m a pediatrician. I want to prescribe the right AI to my patients

Article excerpt

A pediatrician describes opening an exam room to find a child entranced by "Bluey" on an iPad, then pivots to a broader reflection on how medical professionals should approach AI tools for young patients. The doctor frames the growing presence of AI in children's lives not as an inevitable harm to be resisted, but as a clinical reality requiring the same evidence-based guidance pediatricians already provide for screen time, medications, and other interventions. The piece suggests that rather than blanket restrictions, doctors need better frameworks, informed by research, to help families make smarter choices about which AI tools might actually benefit developing minds.