What a pediatric sonographer images, the exams unique to children, the conditions those exams find, and the credentials and settings involved.
Pediatric sonography is the imaging of infants and children. It is less about a single organ and more about a patient population: the same sonographer may image a premature baby’s brain, an infant’s hip, and a child’s abdomen in one shift. Several of its core studies have no equivalent in adult imaging because they rely on features unique to young children, such as the soft spot on a newborn’s skull. The work is concentrated in children’s hospitals.
What it images
Pediatric studies span body systems: the head and neonatal brain, the neonatal spine, the chest, the abdomen (the digestive organs, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, adrenal glands, and retroperitoneum), the genitourinary system, the hips and joints, and vascular and transplant structures (ARDMS Pediatric Sonography content outline, 2016/2021).
The common studies
- Neonatal head ultrasound. Imaging the brain through the open soft spot (fontanelle), used in premature infants to look for bleeding (ARDMS PS content).
- Infant hip ultrasound. Screening for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH).
- Pyloric ultrasound. The standard workup for hypertrophic pyloric stenosis — the cause of forceful vomiting in some infants.
- Neonatal spine ultrasound. Screening for a tethered spinal cord and related spinal differences.
- Abdominal, kidney, and scrotal studies adapted for children.
The conditions it helps find
Pediatric ultrasound helps identify bleeding in the brain of premature infants, fluid buildup in the brain (hydrocephalus), developmental dysplasia of the hip, pyloric stenosis, intussusception (a telescoping of the intestine), congenital differences and birth defects, blockage of urine flow and urinary-tract anomalies, a tethered spinal cord, and abdominal masses such as Wilms tumor and neuroblastoma (ARDMS PS content; the BLS notes pediatric work is often associated with premature births or birth defects, May 2024).
The credentials
- RDMS — Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer, Pediatric Sonography specialty, issued by the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). The path requires the Sonography Principles and Instrumentation (SPI) physics exam plus the Pediatric Sonography exam, within five years; that exam weights congenital differences and pediatric disease heavily (ARDMS, 2024).
- For the pediatric heart specifically, Pediatric Echocardiography is a separate ARDMS exam under the RDCS (cardiac) credential — a different exam and a different credential from general pediatric sonography (ARDMS, 2024).
Pediatric sonography (the body systems) and pediatric echocardiography (the heart) are two different things; the Cardiac Sonography page covers the heart side. Licensing and Certification covers the credentialing bodies.
Where the work happens
Pediatric sonographers work in children’s hospitals, hospital pediatric-radiology departments and neonatal intensive-care units, and pediatric specialty imaging centers. It is a more specialized scope than general sonography, concentrated in these settings.
Pay and outlook
Pediatric work sits within the general diagnostic medical sonographers occupation (code 29-2032): a median wage of $89,340 and 13 percent projected growth from 2024 to 2034 (BLS, May 2024). The BLS does not publish a separate pediatric-only wage.
Last verified: 2026-06-14. Credential requirements change; confirm current details with ARDMS. Salary figures are from the BLS and describe the occupation, not any individual job. This page is informational and does not recommend a specialty.