Child Psych or Child Neuro/NDD for Neurodevelopmental Disorders?

[Twub13]

I am really interested in working with kid’s with developmental disabilities and cannot decide whether I want to do it through psych or Neuro (possibly NDD program) Child Psych: residency has better work life. Will also be certified to do adult psych if I wanted to work with adults too. Nice continuity of care. I worry I will miss doing ~physical~ medicine and primary care. Really get to help with behavioral/coping skills Child neuro: much harder residency from what I have heard. Also apparently less time working through behavioral issues which is what I really enjoy. NDD resident told me less continuity of care because they see a lot of patients coming in for diagnosis and never return. Less programs available. Would get to do some procedures and I LOVE hands on. Would be trained in peds too so I could get to do primary care if I wanted to.

I am going back and forth between whether I pick the one that may be easier but I could miss physical medicine or one that will be a much more rough residency but enable me to continue some physical medicine as well.

Any med students wanting to do this path have any opinions or have gotten any advice? Or any residents/attendings that can speak to this?
Also, can anyone speak to salary as as I will have so many loans

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[mrbreakfast]

I'm an adult neurologist but would say: let's say you see a kiddo with CP who has both physical and cognitive/behavioral issues. Do you want to be in charge of treating both, or just the cognitive/behavioral issues? That's your decision. I would not recommend making a decision on 30-40 years of a career based on residency difficulty; you can survive peds neuro residency, it's not that bad.

I would also note that I would not necessarily plan on doing pediatric primary care as a significant proportion of your career after doing a peds neuro residency. You would likely be able to handle basic issues, but may quickly get out of your comfort zone.