Peter Betts, who has died aged 75, was a paediatrician who developed special expertise in growth and diabetes.

Before the 1980s, children who were found to be growth hormone-deficient received treatment with human growth hormone replacement. The development of synthetic growth hormone, which became widely available, led to a call for it to be used for normal short children who did not have any hormone deficiency or other physical illness to account for this. This was based on the presumption that being short in stature was detrimental to a child’s development and psychological functioning.

To test the presumption, and to see whether regular injections of growth hormone would help, Betts set up the Wessex Growth Study, into which he recruited all children beginning primary school in Winchester and Southampton in 1985-86.

Using standardised measurements he and his research team identified all those who were in the shortest three per cent of the population, and after excluding those with recognisable medical problems, were left with 140 whom they followed up through their school years, with a matched group of children of normal stature.

They found that the short children were no different to their average-sized peers in terms of self-esteem and behaviour. Their conclusion was that injections of growth hormone were not indicated. This was a hugely important finding which prevented many children around the world being given unnecessary medication.

Betts also cared for children with diabetes, recognising the need for multi-professional involvement, with nurses and dietitians as well as psychologists, to help children into adult life in as optimal a state as possible.

He understood that the way to improve diabetes care was by identifying best practice, and he developed the Wessex Diabetes Audit. The Wessex diabetic service is recognised as one of the best in the country and is led by paediatric diabetic consultants, a specialisation which he championed.

Peter Betts was born on June 17 1943 and grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon. His father ran a successful seed merchant business; there was no tradition of medicine in the family. He always wanted to be a doctor, however, and, though warned that he would not make the grade, qualified in medicine at the London Hospital, graduating in 1966.

Betts trained in Birmingham and Stoke before appointment as a paediatrician in Southampton and Winchester, where he became widely admired for his clinical, teaching and leadership skills.

He took his family for an adventurous year to Rhodesia, after which he undertook teaching and research projects in Jordan and the Caribbean and developed a twinning programme with three Russian cities to improve the diabetic care of children on the Wessex model.

A lean man who was always cheerful and sociable, Betts threw himself headlong into whatever he did. When he sailed he took courses in navigation and crossed the Channel; when he walked up mountains in Britain, France, Nepal, Norway and New Zealand, he would carry a large pack and stay in refuges or camps. He took up skiing aged 50 and played golf regularly. He loved cycling, and took up bridge in his later years.

All these interests were shared with his wife Elizabeth, whom he had met when a student in London, and with whom he had two daughters and a son. They played a full part in their local community of Compton in Winchester with a group of devoted friends.

In retirement, Betts approached the more solitary interests of photography, gardening and reading with his characteristic enthusiasm and thoroughness.

His wife and children survive him.

Peter Betts, born June 17 1943, died October 14 2019