Adolescence, the transition from childhood to adulthood that spans roughly ten to nineteen years of age, is one of the most significant periods of biological, emotional, and social change in a person's life. It is also one of the most underserved stages in routine paediatric healthcare, particularly in smaller cities and district-level practice settings like Ongole, where the focus of paediatric consultations tends to remain on acute illness and vaccination while the specific health needs of the adolescent patient go unaddressed. The Indian Academy of Paediatrics established the ACE, or Adolescent Counselling Excellence, certification precisely to address this gap: to equip paediatricians with the specific competencies needed to assess, counsel, and support adolescent patients across the physical, nutritional, emotional, and preventive health dimensions of this life stage. As a DNB Paediatrician with IAP ACE certification, my practice at Matha Sisuv Viadhyasala Hospital, Ongole, includes structured adolescent health assessments that address what a standard paediatric consultation often does not.
What Adolescent Health Actually Encompasses
The physical changes of adolescence, puberty, growth spurts, body composition shifts, and the establishment of adult height, are driven by hormonal changes that also have nutritional implications. Adolescents have higher requirements for iron, calcium, zinc, and specific vitamins than younger children, and deficiencies in these micronutrients during this period have lasting consequences for bone density, reproductive health, and cognitive function. In Andhra Pradesh and across South India, iron deficiency anaemia in adolescent girls remains highly prevalent and is frequently missed because the fatigue and reduced exercise tolerance it causes are attributed to study stress or normal teenage behaviour rather than investigated as a clinical finding. At the same time, the opposite nutritional concern, overweight and obesity driven by sedentary lifestyles and high-calorie, low-nutrient dietary patterns, is increasing rapidly in urban and peri-urban adolescent populations. Nutritional assessment and personalised guidance at each adolescent health visit is one of the most important preventive investments a family can make during this phase, and it is a structured part of every adolescent consultation I conduct.
The Counselling Dimension: What the IAP ACE Framework Addresses
The IAP ACE certification is not simply a credential in general adolescent medicine. It reflects specific training in the counselling skills and the HEEADSSS assessment framework, a structured approach to evaluating an adolescent's Home environment, Education and employment, Eating, Activities, Drugs, Sexuality, Suicide and depression risk, and Safety, that equips the paediatrician to identify concerns that the adolescent patient will not voluntarily raise in a standard consultation. Adolescents rarely present directly with mental health concerns, academic stress, disordered eating, or relationship difficulties. They present with somatic complaints: fatigue, recurrent headaches, abdominal pain, sleep disturbance, and weight changes that have no organic explanation on standard investigation. A paediatrician without specific adolescent counselling training investigates these symptoms physically and repeatedly, without identifying the underlying concern. A paediatrician with ACE training recognises the pattern, creates the confidential consultation space that allows the adolescent to speak honestly, and connects the physical symptom to its psychosocial driver. At Matha Sisuv Viadhyasala Hospital, Ongole, adolescent consultations are available as dedicated, confidential sessions where the physical and emotional health of the teenage patient are addressed together, in a framework that respects the adolescent's growing autonomy while keeping the family appropriately informed.
To book a consultation with Dr. Salma Shaik at Matha Sisuv Viadhyasala (Mother and Child) Hospital and Vaccination Center, Seetha Ram Puram, Devuni Cheru, Ongole, Andhra Pradesh 523001 (Monday to Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM), call +91 9515410552 or visit linqmd.com/doctor/salma-shaik
Written by Dr. Salma Shaik, MBBS, DCH, DNB (Paediatrics), PRTI (Paediatric Respiratory Tract Infection Certification), IAP ACE (Adolescent Counselling Excellence, Indian Academy of Paediatrics, 2026), Asthma and Allergy Certification, Civil Assistant Surgeon (CAS) Paediatrics, Consultant Paediatrician and Allergy and Asthma Specialist, Matha Sisuv Viadhyasala (Mother and Child) Hospital and Vaccination Center, G23W+526, Seetha Ram Puram, Devuni Cheru, Ongole, Andhra Pradesh 523001. Monday to Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. 13+ years. 12,000+ patients. Phone: +91 9515410552.
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