Dr Neha Garg

Infectious disease is the most common reason children are brought to a paediatrician, and the most consequential decisions in paediatric primary care are the ones made at this interface: whether a fever represents a viral illness that will resolve with supportive care, or a bacterial infection requiring specific treatment, or a pattern that signals something more serious requiring urgent investigation. Dr. Neha Garg brings MD Pediatrics-trained clinical judgement to the evaluation and management of childhood infectious diseases in Bengaluru. Fever is not a diagnosis - it is a signal, and the history of its pattern, duration, associated symptoms, and the child's overall appearance guide the clinical approach. She distinguishes viral illnesses, which are self-limiting and do not require antibiotics, from bacterial infections where antibiotic therapy changes outcomes, and from conditions specific to the Bengaluru and Indian paediatric context - dengue, typhoid, leptospirosis, and viral encephalitis - that require specific investigation and management pathways. Antibiotic stewardship is an active principle in her practice: antibiotics are prescribed when clinically indicated, not as a precaution, because the long-term impact of unnecessary antibiotic use on a child's gut microbiome and future infection susceptibility is a real and underappreciated harm.

Immunisation is the most impactful preventive health intervention available in childhood, protecting individual children and contributing to the herd immunity that protects those who cannot be vaccinated. Yet standard vaccination schedules are written for healthy children presenting on time - and a significant proportion of children presenting in clinical practice fall outside this default: they have missed doses, have underlying health conditions that modify the recommended approach, or have parents with genuine concerns that need to be addressed carefully. Dr. Neha Garg develops personalised immunisation plans for each child in her practice in Bengaluru, going beyond the default schedule to account for the individual clinical context. For children presenting with delayed or incomplete vaccination, she creates structured catch-up programmes that bring immunisation up to date efficiently and safely. For children with prematurity, chronic illness, immunosuppression, or other high-risk conditions, she adapts vaccination timing and selection based on the child's specific clinical needs - recognising that these children are often most in need of vaccine protection yet require the most individualised approach. She also dedicates time to vaccine hesitancy counselling, meeting parental concerns with evidence and explanation rather than dismissal, because a parent who understands the purpose and safety profile of each vaccine is far more likely to complete the recommended schedule.

Nutrition underpins every dimension of a child's health - physical growth, immune function, cognitive development, energy, and long-term chronic disease risk. Yet nutritional concerns are among the most commonly under-addressed in paediatric consultations, either because time is short or because the guidance available to parents online is generic, inconsistent, and frequently contradictory. Dr. Neha Garg provides structured, age-specific nutritional counselling as a central component of her paediatric practice in Bengaluru. For infants beginning complementary foods from six months, she addresses the most common parental errors: starting too late, introducing foods one at a time for weeks rather than expanding the diet efficiently, offering excessive fruit juice, and delaying the introduction of texture. Iron deficiency and Vitamin D deficiency are the two most prevalent nutritional deficiencies in Indian children, and she screens for both systematically and treats with clarity about dose, duration, and what dietary change can and cannot achieve without supplementation. For older children and adolescents, she addresses the nutritional challenges specific to each stage - including the rising prevalence of obesity, metabolic risk, and disordered eating patterns in adolescents - with practical, non-judgemental guidance that supports families in making sustainable changes.