The big news is a recent report on kids drinking hand sanitizer.  What's next? Where do they get the ideas for this?

I don’t think we can hide everything that has something that will mess with their heads.

I found the following article this morning US Health News and I wonder what message it sends.  It only outlines the fact that you can get drunk from drinking it.  Do you think more teens will be trying it?   How about telling them they may die if they drink it !!

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Health Buzz: Teens Getting Drunk on Hand Sanitizer

April 25, 2012

Los Angeles Teens Getting Drunk on Hand Sanitizer

Teens are getting drunk on hand sanitizer. Over the past few months, six teenagers have shown up in Los Angeles area emergency rooms with alcohol poisoning after drinking the cheap, easily accessible product. Hand sanitizer contain 62 percent ethyl alcohol and can make a 120-proof liquid. Some of the teens used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, creating a drink similar to a shot of hard liquor. “All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager,” Cyrus Rangan, director of the toxicology bureau for the county public health department and a medical toxicology consultant for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times. “There is no question that it is dangerous.” Health experts recommend that parents purchase the foam version of hand sanitizer, since it’s harder to extract the alcohol, potentially dissuading teens from drinking it.

 

 

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Here is another article that tells of a danger to kids but nothing about how to parent in a way that will help the kids to avoid bad decisions.

 

The ‘Choking Game’ and Other Dangerous Games Your Kids Should Avoid

A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, but a spoonful of cinnamon … that’s an entirely different story.

It sounds like something you’d see on the television show Iron Chef, only the seemingly innocent “cinnamon challenge” poses an alarming number of risks for kids and teens who take it on. (The goal: to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon without washing it down with water.) Over the past few months, emergency rooms and poison control centers throughout the country have been flooded with calls from panicked parents and concerned school nurses about this prevalent trend.

But cinnamon isn’t the only ingredient that kids are challenging. Milk, marshmallows, water, and even oxygen (rather, lack thereof) can stimulate kids’ competitive edge. More than 6 percent of eighth graders have participated in the extremely dangerous “choking game,” which involves cutting off oxygen intake by strangling to produce a light-headed, fuzzy feeling, finds a new study published in Pediatrics by the Oregon Health Authority and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 1995 and 2007, approximately 82 kids ages six to 19 died after playing the choking game, according to the study.

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Both of these articles tell parents about the crazy stuff that our kids are doing.  I find it interesting that the articles do not address the problem.  WHY ARE THESE KIDS DOING CRAZY THINGS?

1. They are glamorized on Television

2.  Kids have not been taught to make good decisions

3.  Grown ups act like kids and the kids want to be grown up

4.  Acting crazy and doing stupid things is an attention getter.

5.  Confusion about right and wrong is king today

6.  Parents are not full-time leaders in their family

7.  They have no basis for sound decision-making

So what is the best way to keep our kids safe and smart?

1.  Remember they are kids.  There is a time to grow up and a time to be a kid.  Don’t hurry the process

2.  Give them your time.  There is nothing more important.

3.  Provide GOOD examples of good decision-making and explain it to them.

4.  Pay attention,  Teenagers are goofy.  They are built that way but they should not be stupid if you have started teaching them as 3 year olds

5.  Remember your roll.  You are the parent, not the best friend.   That comes after they reach 21 or 41.

7  Parents that set rules and stick to them may not be popular but their kids will respect them and will be less likely to fall into the traps set by society.

Here is a big secret.  MOST PARENT ARE VERY GOOD EXAMPLES AND MOST KIDS ARE NOT CRAZY STUPID.   We are fed the bad examples by the media when in reality we are only seeing the bad exceptions and never told of the good examples.

Check out the latest outstanding resource DEMOCRATIC PARENTING for great tips.

 

About G.L.Hubbard:

Happily married for over 50 years, 4 children, 6 grand children, 2 great grand children. Author of many articles and posts designed to help today’s kids enjoy life in the same wonderful world he has enjoyed.