Our story
Built by a dad of three, starting at 3am
Symptom Kids started as a WhatsApp thread. When one of our kids got sick, my wife and I would text each other every dose of medicine — because a message has a timestamp, and a timestamp meant we always knew what was given and when. It worked, sort of. Then the dose log would get buried under grocery lists and school logistics, and we’d be scrolling through weeks of chat to find the last Tylenol.
Then came the pediatrician visits. When did the fever start? How high did it get? What came first, the rash or the sore throat? We’d piece the week together from memory, through the brain fog of three young kids and not enough sleep.
Two problems kept coming back: coordinating medicine doses between two parents, and having a clear record when the doctor asks. A third emerged once we had one — seeing the trends you only spot over time: the cough that keeps coming back, the symptoms that creep, the patterns across months.
I tried the existing apps. They were all a bit too complicated — more than we needed. The thing we actually loved was the simplicity of a chat thread. So I built exactly that: a messaging-style timeline for symptoms and doses. Then I sat down with pediatrician friends and asked what they wish parents brought to appointments — and made it that, and easy to share.
— Matt · dad of three, maker of Symptom Kids