All My Children

One of your most important goals when passing the baton to your child is to prepare him or her for marriage. If you have a strong and vibrant marriage, it is important to share with your children the principles upon which you have built and maintained this relationship. But if your marriage is less than ideal or you have experienced a divorce, lessons you have learned the hard way can still benefit your children, assuming that you are willing to be candid and transparent about your experience.

At a time when approximately 50 percent of marriages end in divorce and only 10 to 20 percent of the remaining marriages (5 to 10 percent of the total) are characterized by true satisfaction, parents face a formidable job educating their children about selecting a husband or a wife for life. Continue Reading »

Alcohol—the most dangerous gateway drug

In all fifty states, it is illegal to sell alcoholic beverages to anyone under age twenty-one. This is no accident, because for teenagers alcohol is a gateway to a lot more than other drugs.

Alcohol causes more deaths among adolescents than any other substance. About 40 percent of all deaths in sixteen- to twenty-year-olds result from motor- vehicle crashes, and half of these are alcohol related. Overall, driving under the influence is the leading cause of death for people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Alcohol also frequently plays a role in adolescent deaths from other causes: homicides, suicides, drownings, and motorcycle and bicycle accidents. Continue Reading »

Few children and adolescents start a career of drug use by snorting cocaine or injecting heroin. The path usually begins with products from the corner store—tobacco, alcohol, or household products that are inhaled—or with marijuana, which some mistakenly consider safe.

Tobacco—the smoking gun

No drug habit has a greater negative impact on our national health than tobacco, which is implicated in more than four hundred thousand deaths in the United States each year. The list of disorders caused or aggravated by tobacco is staggering. Among these diseases are cancers of the lung, mouth, vocal cords, and other organs; chronic lung disease; asthma; ulcers; clogging of the vessels that supply blood to the heart and other organs, causing heart attacks, strokes, amputations, and premature deaths. Babies and children who breathe smokers‘ exhaust at home are at risk for respiratory infections, asthma, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Continue Reading »

Twenty to 30 percent of American children and adolescents are estimated to be overweight, which is traditionally defined as 10 to 20 percent over “ideal” (a better term would be “appropriate“) weight‘ for age and height or obese (more than 20 percent over appropriate weight). It is important to understand that the significance of a given weight depends not only upon age and height but also on general build and percentage of body fat. For example, a muscular, well-conditioned athlete may technically weigh more than the ideal amount for his height, but his percentage of body fat may be normal or even low.

Normally height and weight are entered on a growth chart as part of routine physical examinations, and very often a look at the pattern of these measurements over a period of time can clarify concerns about a child’s weight. If your child or adolescent is more than 20 percent overweight, a medical evaluation is appropriate, whether as part of a regular checkup or during a special visit. While it is unlikely that the doctor will find a treatable disease that is responsible for the weight problem, it is most important to seek help and begin to work with the child on this problem for the following reasons: Continue Reading »