We know more about e-cigarettes and teens than ever before. Recently, Dr. Vivek Murthy, US Surgeon General released a report on teens and young adults who use e-cigarettes. Perhaps one of the more staggering statistics in the report states that e-cig use has increased 900% in high school students from 2011-2015. That’s a jump. Especially concerning right […]
Teens
Teens Use Cough Medication To Get High
We’re thankfully in the middle of a national conversation about ways to protect the public from drugs of abuse. The opioid epidemic has brought the issue of medicines and risk to the forefront and has awakened a new understanding about the lethality of drugs of abuse and addiction. There are other medicines, even over-the-counter medicines, […]
How To Talk To Boys & Girls About Sex
I haven’t felt like a pro in knowing how to talk about sex with my boys. No matter that I was a middle school science teacher, I’m now a pediatrician and an ever-evolving mom of two. It’s a tough topic even for me as a “talker.” So it was a TRUE JOY and huge relief […]
Teen Vaping Leads To Cigarette Use
Big news published today in Pediatrics; a new study reports that adolescents who vape are 6 TIMES more likely to smoke cigarettes in early adulthood. Researchers studied 11th and 12th graders during the transition from being US minors to legal adults when they have the right to buy traditional cigarettes (age 18 years) to see the effect using […]
HPV Vaccine Decreases HPV Infections!
Great news about reducing cancer risk. Nothing controversial here… There is early evidence from a recent Pediatrics study that the HPV vaccine is doing what it was intended to do: decrease the rates of HPV infection in teens and young adults. The study compared HPV in two groups of teen girls and young women–one group during […]
New Birth Control Laws: Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy
Easy, confidential access to affordable birth control is essential if we’re going to decrease the rate of unplanned pregnancies. The dynamics of birth control access are changing, thank goodness. As we’ve heard about parts of the world simply telling women NOT to have babies (Hello, Ecuador) we really do have to think about how women […]
Yes To No Tobacco Until Age 21
Hear me straight: we don’t want anyone addicted to tobacco products. No question it’s an ugly habit and a terribly complex addiction. Expensive, detrimental to health, so very ugly… So I’m all for WA State House Bill 2313 (SB 6157) supporting moving the purchase age of tobacco from 18 to 21. Yes I know you […]
Teens Getting High: DXM Cough Medicine
Drug abuse is on every parent’s mind. We simply don’t want our children to ever go down the road of drug addiction. To empower parents to spot the warning signs and help prevent teen abuse of over-the-counter (OTC) cough medicine containing dextromethorphan (DXM), the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) is sharing the results of qualitative […]
What You Can Do: Children And Safe Gun Storage
Gun violence is a tricky topic to write about. It’s emotionally laden, there are political overtones that bring out passion and I find quicksand when I never expect it. No matter where you fall on issues related to firearm safety, there is no doubt that we all want the same thing: healthy communities, healthy families, […]
