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For Parents: Adolescent Topics and Issues

This site is devoted to parents of teens and preteens. It contains information to help you keep your kids healthy, safe and feeling nurtured. Our goal is to stimulate conversations between you and your child about issues they face and problems they wrestle with, and help them make decisions. Each page contains an extensive lists of reference links and sources.

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Food Allergy vs. Food Intolerance

A common type of allergic reaction is a food allergy. The most common foods that elicit allergic reactions are peanuts, tree nuts (such as walnuts, pecans and almonds), shellfish, dairy and wheat, but allergic reactions can be caused by any food.

Author: Leigha Winters, college student writer

A food allergy is actually an immune-system response. When someone eats certain foods (such as those listed above), the body mistakenly treats an ingredient in the food (usually a protein) as if it were a harmful pathogen. The body responds by creating a defense system (antibodies) to fight it. The allergic symptoms occur as a byproduct of the action of the antibodies that battle the invading food.

Food intolerance is a broad term that describes any adverse reaction to food. While only a small percentage of all food intolerance can be proven to be a food allergy, a food-allergic reaction can be dangerous, even fatal (please see below).

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Transition to High School

Starting high school is an overwhelming experience for any teenager. Whether you are coming from a middle school (grades six through eight) or a junior high school (grades seven through nine), there are many things about high school that are different from your old school environment, and you will experience many changes.

You will face navigating a new school, making new friends in an unfamiliar class and getting to know new teachers. These new teachers will usually have higher academic expectations than your middle and junior-high school teachers. They want to help you get into college; in return, they expect you to work hard and improve your skills. On top of all this, peer pressure to do drugs and alcohol and have sex often increases in high school.

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College: Where Do You Start?

huge range of emotions, responses and ideas

It seems like everyone has some wise advice, but what are you really supposed to do with all of it? If we listened to what everyone said, we’d start taking SATs in middle school, apply to only the schools we’ve heard of and probably have no time for anything else!

When I started the whole process, it seemed like there was just so much information out there. One of the most important things is organization. It’s essential to keep track of deadlines, e-mail addresses, requirements and supplements, and keep interview information all in one place. To keep myself organized, I made an Excel spreadsheet, but there are plenty of other ways to stay on top of things. Find what works for you, whether it’s a print-out calendar or binders for each school to which you apply.

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Body Hair Removal: Threading

Threading is one of the oldest methods of body hair removal. It is thought to have originated in Turkey, although it is currently most popular in India and other parts of the Middle East. Today, threading is also gaining popularity in Western cosmetology. In the art of threading, the practitioner rolls twisted cotton threads over hairlines to remove unwanted hair. To do this, the practitioner holds one end of a cotton thread between her teeth and the other in her left hand. The middle part of the thread is looped through the index and middle fingers of the right hand. The loop is used to trap unwanted hair so that it can be easily plucked from the skin. This is a difficult technique that takes practitioners many months to perfect. Do not attempt to try this at home. As with all methods of body hair removal, there are both advantages and disadvantages to threading.

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Body Hair Removal: Threading

Threading is one of the oldest methods of body hair removal. It is thought to have originated in Turkey, although it is currently most popular in India and other parts of the Middle East. Today, threading is also gaining popularity in Western cosmetology. In the art of threading, the practitioner rolls twisted cotton threads over hairlines to remove unwanted hair. To do this, the practitioner holds one end of a cotton thread between her teeth and the other in her left hand. The middle part of the thread is looped through the index and middle fingers of the right hand. The loop is used to trap unwanted hair so that it can be easily plucked from the skin. This is a difficult technique that takes practitioners many months to perfect. Do not attempt to try this at home. As with all methods of body hair removal, there are both advantages and disadvantages to threading.

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Monday
Oct 1
2007

Nancy L. Brown, PhDAdolescent Health

Teen Health 411

Health Expert Updates

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Monday
Oct 1
2007

Nancy L. Brown, PhDAdolescent Health

Teen Health 411

clipped from www.healthline.com

Book Review: When Your Kid Goes to College: A Parents Survival Guide

As promised, here is the first book I can recommend for parents struggling with an empty nest. When Your Kid Goes to College: A Parents Survival Guide (1998), by Carol Barkin is a "support group with a binding" for parents preparing to let their kids go off to college. It is supportive, reassuring, and practical. Every family is different of course, so there is no "how to" manual, but this book is a great start - providing both the parent and student perspectives on celebrations and rituals, packing, emotional ups and down, relationships, and even many great suggestions for how to share the process in divorced families.

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Hearing Loss Related to MP3s and iPods

According to the Journal of Pediatrics (2005), 12.5 percent of kids between the ages of 6 and 19 suffer from loss of hearing as a result of using ear phones turned to a high volume. A major contributor to this significant statistic is the recent introduction of earbuds (small speakers that fit inside your ear) and MP3 players that allow kids and teens to listen to music at high volumes without anyone else knowing the volume. Many kids and teens think that hearing loss only happens to older people, commonly grandparents, but the age of the onset of hearing damage is decreasing.

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PRANA stands for life force in Sanskrit. The Palo Alto Medical Foundation's (PAMF) South Asian Wellness Task Force, a committee of physicians, dietitians and community members, created PRANA (Prevention and Awareness for South Asians) to provide health education and resources to the South Asian community.

PRANA Resources