Pediatric practice marketing: ideas and rules

Pediatric practices market to one person and care for another. Parents choose the practice, book the visits and read the reviews; the patient may be a newborn or a teenager who wants some privacy from those same parents. Good pediatric marketing speaks to parents clearly and keeps children’s information, online and offline, out of places it should not be.

Below are practical ideas for pediatric medical and dental practices, with the federal rules that shape them. Lice removal clinics and their guarantee wording are covered in our guide to lice clinic marketing rules. For school screening and bracing claims, see scoliosis clinic marketing. For milestone screening reminders, see developmental and autism screening outreach.

This is general information, not legal advice. Federal sources cited were checked on October 28, 2026. State law decides many questions about minors, including when a minor can consent to care and what parents may see. Have a health care attorney review your website, forms and policies for your state.

1. Write for parents, not for children

A pediatric website’s real audience is adults: parents, grandparents and guardians deciding where to take a child. Speak to them directly. Say which ages you see, how same-day sick visits work, which insurance plans you accept, what a newborn’s first visit involves and how to reach someone after hours.

There is also a legal reason to write for parents. The FTC’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA, 16 CFR Part 312) applies to operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13, and to operators with actual knowledge that they collect personal information from a child. A site written for parents usually is not directed to children. Pages built for kids can change that.

2. Know when COPPA could apply to your website

The FTC amended the COPPA Rule in 2025. The amended rule was published April 22, 2025 and took effect June 23, 2025, and the FTC gave businesses until one year after publication, April 22, 2026, to comply with most of the changes. Here is what matters for a practice website:

Who counts as a child. Under 312.2, a child is an individual under the age of 13.
What makes a site or page directed to children. The FTC considers subject matter, visual content, use of animated characters or child-oriented activities and incentives, music, the age of models and other characteristics (312.2). A “kids corner” with games, cartoon mascots or coloring pages can be a portion of your site directed to children.
What counts as personal information. It includes names, contact details, photos, voice recordings and a persistent identifier that can be used to recognize a user over time and across different websites, such as a cookie identifier or IP address (312.2). The 2025 amendments added biometric identifiers.
What the rule requires. An operator covered by the rule must give notice of what it collects from children and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using or disclosing a child’s personal information (312.3, 312.4, 312.5), keep a written information security program (312.8), and keep children’s information only as long as reasonably necessary (312.10).

The practical takeaway for most practices: keep the website aimed at parents, and if you add anything aimed at children, do not put advertising or analytics tags that collect identifiers on those pages, and do not ask children to submit anything. If you want an interactive feature for kids, talk to counsel first.

3. Keep forms and tracking away from children’s health information

Appointment requests, intake forms and portal sign-ups on a pediatric site carry a child’s health information, entered by a parent. If your practice is a HIPAA covered entity, the same rules apply as for adult patients: keep advertising pixels off those pages, use a form and email setup that fits HIPAA, and ask only for what you need to reply. See our guides on tracking pixels and HIPAA and website contact forms.

4. Understand who the “patient” is for messages and permissions

Under HIPAA, a parent or guardian who has authority under applicable law to make health care decisions for an unemancipated minor is generally treated as the child’s personal representative (45 CFR 164.502(g)). That is why a parent usually signs forms, receives reminders and gives permission for a child’s information to be used.

There are exceptions, and they come from state law. Section 164.502(g)(3) explains that when a minor may lawfully consent to a service, or when state law permits or prohibits disclosure to a parent, the covered entity follows that law. For marketing and communications, this means:

Do not send appointment reminders or newsletters that could reveal confidential teen services to a parent’s phone or email.
Set up your reminder and portal systems so confidential services are handled the way your state requires.
Let your front desk know which kinds of visits need special handling before any automated message goes out.

For privacy pages, insurance notices, portal proxy settings and ads for confidential teen services, see our guide to marketing confidential health services to teens.

5. Be careful with photos and stories of children

Photos of real patients make a pediatric site warm, and they also require the most care. If your practice is a covered entity, using a child’s photo or story in marketing needs a written HIPAA authorization (45 CFR 164.508). For a minor, the personal representative usually signs, and the form must describe their authority to act for the child (164.508(c)(1)(vi)). Many practices choose instead to show their team, their rooms and their waiting area, with no children identifiable at all.

If you do feature a child, avoid full names, birthdays, school names or anything else that identifies them, and set an expiration date. Our guide to patient testimonials and photos includes a checklist for the authorization form.

6. Make your Business Profile parent-friendly

Parents search for “pediatrician near me” or “kids dentist open Saturday” and decide quickly. Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. Keep hours, including sick visit and after-hours information, accurate, add photos of your real office, and use the services and attributes fields to show what you offer. Our Google Business Profile guide for doctors covers the setup.

7. Ask parents for reviews, and reply carefully

Ask every family for an honest review, and never offer anything in exchange for a positive one: the FTC’s reviews rule (16 CFR 465.4) bans incentives for reviews of a particular sentiment. When you reply, do not confirm that the reviewer’s child is a patient or mention their care. See how to reply to patient reviews.

8. Use reminders for checkups and recalls

Well-child visits and dental recalls follow predictable schedules, which makes reminders one of the most useful tools a pediatric practice has. Send them to the parent or guardian by the channel they chose, keep them free of clinical detail, and follow the consent rules for text messages. See our guides to a patient recall system and text message reminders. For the checkup schedule, Medicaid and CHIP coverage, school forms and teen reminders, see our guide to well-child visit outreach.

9. Community presence that fits the rules

Talks for parent groups, school health fairs and new-parent classes build trust in a way ads cannot. Keep them educational, do not collect children’s information, and if you offer anything free to families, check with counsel when patients are covered by Medicaid or CHIP; see our guide to referral and inducement rules.

When parents ask about attention or developmental concerns, what you can say about ADHD and autism evaluations, screening quizzes and school evaluations is in our guide to ADHD and autism evaluation marketing.

Ideas to skip

Games, quizzes or sign-ups aimed at children, unless you have handled COPPA with counsel.
Advertising pixels on kids pages, appointment requests or intake forms.
Photos or stories of identifiable children without a signed authorization.
Automated messages that could reveal a teen’s confidential visit.

A practice that runs an asthma program has more to plan: emergency wording above the booking button, written action plans, school forms and the line between FERPA and HIPAA, and claims about cure and outgrowing asthma. Our guide to pediatric asthma program marketing covers each of those.

Applying fluoride varnish in a pediatric office, what the USPSTF and the FDA say about fluoride for young children, and how to keep the dental home in the picture are covered in our guide to fluoride varnish in medical offices.

For the amended 2025 COPPA Rule in depth, including separate consent for third-party sharing, the written security program and the retention policy, see our guide to COPPA for pediatric practice websites and apps.

How we help

We build websites for independent practices that speak to the right audience and keep tracking off pages where health or children’s information is entered. We do not give legal advice. See our medical website design and dental marketing services, or the full list in our healthcare marketing rules guide.

Frequently asked questions

Does COPPA apply to a pediatric practice website?

Usually not, if the site is written for parents and does not knowingly collect information from children under 13. It can apply to a site or a portion of one that is directed to children, for example pages with games, cartoon characters or activities for kids, under the factors in 16 CFR 312.2.

When did the amended COPPA Rule take effect?

The amended rule was published April 22, 2025 and took effect June 23, 2025. The FTC set the compliance date for most of the changes at one year after publication, April 22, 2026.

Can we use cookies or analytics on a kids page?

A persistent identifier such as a cookie ID or IP address is personal information under COPPA. On a page directed to children, collecting it generally requires notice and verifiable parental consent, with limited exceptions for internal operations. The simplest approach is to keep such tags off those pages.

Can parents see everything about their child’s care?

Under HIPAA, a parent is generally the child’s personal representative, but state law can give minors the right to consent to certain services and can limit what parents may see. Follow your state’s rules, especially for teen services.

Can we post photos of our young patients?

If you are a HIPAA covered entity, only with a written authorization, usually signed by the parent or guardian as personal representative, under 45 CFR 164.508.

Pediatric practice marketing: ideas and the rules for children and parents