How we work

Who is responsible for this content

The articles on this site are drafted with AI assistance — see “How we use AI” below — and then edited and released by Tom Scheduikat, who holds editorial responsibility for them by name. He is the developer and founder of Mona and a father of three.

Contact: hi@mona-symptom-diary.com. Full provider details are in the imprint; more about the author is on the about page.

How an article is made

Every article starts with a question parents actually ask — usually at night, usually under pressure. We research it against the sources listed below, write an answer that makes sense without prior knowledge, and then check every number and every recommendation again against the exact page we cite — not against a search summary, and not against “the institution in general”.

Every medical statement in an article rests on the sources listed at the foot of that article. If a figure cannot be found there, it is removed, or pulled back to the wording the source actually uses.

Which sources we use

For the English articles the National Health Service (NHS) is our main reference, because emergency numbers, temperature thresholds and care pathways differ between countries: we follow NHS guidance on when to call 999, when to call 111, when to go to A&E and when to see your GP. The German articles are based on German references instead — the AWMF guidelines, the Robert Koch Institute, IQWiG's gesundheitsinformation.de, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) and the professional association of paediatricians (BVKJ).

What we do not use as a source: forums, advice portals without citations, third-party anecdotes, and AI-generated summaries. Every source we rely on is listed at the foot of the article with its title, link and access date.

How we use AI — and who answers for it

Research and drafting happen with AI assistance. We say so openly, because it is part of how you should read the text. Every article is editorially reviewed, corrected and released before publication, and every figure and quotation is checked against the original source.

Editorial responsibility for what is published rests with Tom Scheduikat as a natural person. This meets the transparency requirement of Article 50(4) of the EU AI Act, which has applied since 2 August 2026.

What these articles are not

The articles on this site are not reviewed by a doctor. We claim no medical qualification, and we give no diagnoses, no dosing recommendations and no treatment decisions.

What we do: explain what recognised institutions say about a topic, and describe how parents can keep track of how an illness unfolds. Anything beyond observing and recording — which medicine, which dose, which treatment — belongs with your GP or paediatrician. In an emergency, call 999.

How we update

Every article carries a publication date and, once something has changed, an update date. Every source listed also carries the date on which we last retrieved that page.

We do not promise a fixed review cycle — we are too small for that, and a promise we cannot keep would be worse than none. We update an article when guidance we cite changes, when a page we link to disappears, or when someone points out a mistake. We only change the update date when the content actually changed — never to make an article look fresh.

Reporting an error

If something in an article looks wrong, out of date or unclear, write to hi@mona-symptom-diary.com. We check every report, correct what needs correcting, and record the change as an update date on the article.

Funding and conflicts of interest

Mona is funded by its own app: the basic version is free; Mona Pro is available as a monthly or yearly subscription, and — through this website only — as a one-off Founder Lifetime Deal. There is no advertising, no sponsored content, no affiliate links and no third-party payment for content.

The one conflict of interest that remains, we name here openly: we run this blog because we build an app for exactly this problem, and we link to it in the articles. That does not change which sources we cite or what those sources say — but you should know it while you read.