One page, one decision. Every page puts two look-alikes side by side, hands you the single question that tells them apart, and the move each answer demands.
Spot it. Make the call.
◆ Commit
Pick a track before you read on. Deciding is the rep — recognition alone lies to you.
✂ Cover
The answer stays hidden until you call it. Cover, commit, then reveal.
▸ Read
Uncovered, every entry reads as a clean decision: cue → move.
Six engines · one pocket
I
Approach
One presentation, the splitting question, the call.
II
The Clock
When the answer is a moment, not a feature.
III
Pivots
The single lever that separates a pair.
IV
Traps
How smart clinicians get fooled — and the save.
V
Derive-it
Rebuild the buzzword from mechanism.
VI
Thresholds
Cutoffs that flip a decision; first-5-min resus.
Try one live · Approach 01
The Airway Call
A child with noisy breathing and rising work of breathing.
Is there a barking cough — or is the child toxic, drooling and sitting forward?
Why it splitsCroup sits below the cords (subglottic → barky, hoarse, still coughs). Epiglottitis sits above them (can't swallow → drools, won't cough, tripods to hold the airway open).
◆ Commit before you revealCalls made: 0 / 2
◀ If barky & non-toxic
Seal-like cough · hoarse · gradual over days · engageable
Croup
Single dose oral dexamethasone. Nebulised adrenaline if stridor at rest. Keep the child calm on the carer's lap.
Routine · airway stable
buzzword → steeple sign
If drooling & toxic ▶
No cough · muffled voice · tripod · toxic · onset in hours
Epiglottitis
Do NOT examine the throat or lie them flat. Airway first: anaesthetics + ENT, intubate in theatre. Antibiotics after.
⏱ Airway now
buzzword → thumb sign
You've seen the format.
This preview is one page of one engine. The full PediaTrick runs the same decision-first method across every high-yield paediatric look-alike — 16 approaches, timed clocks, pivots, traps, mechanisms and resus thresholds.