Happy National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy! And we can really say “Happy” because there’s a lot to cheer about. The U.S. teen pregnancy rate has declined 42% from its peak in 1990 and is now at a nearly 40-year low. That’s terrific, BUT (there it is…) we still have a lot of work to do!

Today, almost 3 in 10 girls get pregnant by age 20. And compared with other developed countries in the world, the U.S. continues to have the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates.

Most parents believe that they have little influence over their teen children when it comes to sexual activity. Research proves that wrong. Parents’ opinions and expectations matter – but they can only make a difference if they are voiced to your children. Results from a recent telephone survey of 1,002 teens ages 12-19 by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy showed that teens believe parents have the most influence on their decisions about sex. In fact, 87% of those teens said it would be easier to postpone sex and avoid the risk of pregnancy if they could have more open and honest conversations about sex and sexuality with their parents!

So use this National Day to make a statement – to your children, to your colleagues, to your friends. Start those important conversations about the risks of early sexual activity, and the prevention of unwanted consequences.

If you have teens, encourage them to visit StayTeen.org to participate in several online activities. They’ll be joining about a million other teens who will take the National Day Quiz that will put them in six risky situations and challenge them to think about what they would do “in the moment.” The message of the National Day is fun, educational and straightforward: sex has consequences.

Learn more about the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy here
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/national/default.aspx

then send your kids here:
http://www.stayteen.org/quiz

Don’t forget to bookmark these great resources!!

We’re still getting the word out, and we’re still being asked: Should our daughter be vaccinated against HPV, Human Papilloma Virus?  The answer is always a resounding, “YES!”

Well, here’s a curveball:  what about the boys?

In today’s high speed, sexually charged, just-do-it culture, who wouldn’t want a “super-protector” for their teen?  Super-protector.  That’s what leaders in the field of adolescent health have labeled the concept of parent-child connectedness.

A lot of talk about alcohol since the nine Central Washington college students were hospitalized after drinking a beverage that combines alcohol and caffeine.  These products are a hit among students with little monetary resources because they have 12% alcohol in them so one can is equal to about 5 ½ beers.   The caffeine included in these beverages actually mask the feelings of being intoxicated so these students feel fine while they are actually “drunk”.

They look so young and innocent as they step into middle school. They enter with eyes wide open, brains like sponges, and bodies morphing. Over the three years that follow, the changes that occur can be mind-boggling – for them and for you! For girls, middle school is when the majority of body adjustments occur. For boys, it tends to be the end of middle school, beginning of high school. But does that stop those middle school boys from checking out the middle school girls and vice versa? Not a bit. It’s hormone time in the hallways, and that means it’s time for parenting and supervision to double (or triple or more!).