13 Tips to Help Parents Address Prom Night

Written by Nelson Branco MD and Nell Branco, MPH, LCSW

Prom season and graduations are here. Any adult who works with teens or has a teen in their life wants them to fully enjoy this big event while somehow managing to keep it in perspective.

The prom is a time to dress up for a fancy event planned just for them. Kids get to celebrate their friendships and the years they have spent together. We all have memories (good, bad or indifferent) from our high school years, and I’ll bet the prom picture is the first one grandma whips out when she’s trying to embarrass you with your kids.

High school juniors and seniors are young adults, and prom is another opportunity to build trust and foster their ability to be self-reliant. It’s also a good opportunity for parents to communicate clearly about your expectations. Here is a list of issues and suggestions for making prom night stress-free, safe and fun for all.

Planning for prom may be stressful or frustrating for your teen.

Try to be open and supportive through the ups and downs. There may be a logistical or social aspect of the prom that is worrying your son or daughter. Let them problem solve, using you as sounding board, but don’t try to fix it for them.

Don’t side-step the topic of drugs, alcohol, and safe sex.

If you have reasons to be concerned about these issues, bring them up. The emphasis should be on making responsible decisions in addition to having fun.

Discuss rules for the prom; your own rules, the school rules, and consequences for breaking them.

The goal is not to lecture. You want to have a discussion to set positive expectations for a fun and safe night. Tell your teen that you trust their ability to made good plans and reasonable decisions, and that you know they want the night to go well. Begin the conversation with “I know we’ve discussed this before…” or “I know you know this already but I think it is a good idea to review ….”

Make a plan with your teen that you can both stick to.

You might agree to one phone call check-in vs. multiple calls or texts through the night. For older, more independent students a check-in may not be necessary.

Ask who they are going to be with.

It’s reassuring to know your son or daughter’s date, and if they plan to go with a group of students you already know. Have the name and cell phone of one other person in the group as a backup contact.

If your teen is going to a pre-prom or after party, find out who is hosting and who is supervising.

You should feel free to talk to those parents beforehand if you have questions. There are lots of reasons to call each other; to thank them, to offer help, to arrange a pick up time, etc. Often, students and their parents have put a lot of planning into these parties and have rules and guidelines that guests are expected to follow.

Have a backup plan for getting home.

Even if your teen is going with a group in a limo or bus, make sure they have money for a cab or another ride if needed.

Does your teen know how to contact you throughout the evening?

Tell them where you plan to be and how they can reach you. Some parents and teens set up a code or agreed upon phrase that will cue parents to pick them up, no questions asked.

Plan for changes.

If their plans for the evening change (and they may) make sure they know to check in and let you know the new destination and who they are with.

Renting hotel rooms for students is not recommended.

Not only are there issues of supervision and cost, but a large group of teens may run afoul of hotel noise policies and have a negative impact on other hotel guests.

If you are hosting a party review your town’s Social Host laws.

Parent hosts are often responsible for the safety of their guests. For more information about social host laws, see http://www.socialhostliability.org or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_host_liability

Driving safely.

Reinforce the message that they shouldn’t ever drive if they’ve been drinking or using drugs, and shouldn’t let their friends dot it either. It’s also worth reminding your teen that driving while tired can be just as dangerous as driving while they are intoxicated.

Most importantly – with all the excitement (and worry) don’t forget to say

“I love you and have a good time”

as they get ready to leave, and take lots of pictures.

 

Dr. Branco is a practicing pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area and is very active with the local chapter of the AAP. Ellen Branco is a School Counselor and Health Educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been working at independent high schools and counseling since 2001.

Is Your Child Outgrowing Her Generic Concerta Dose?

Methylphenidate (also known as Concerta). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Written by Kristen Stuppy MD. Dr. Stuppy is a practicing pediatrician in Kansas. She feels privileged to be able to help families keep their children healthy and she loves watching entire families grow!  Dr Stuppy is active on Facebook and puts a more personal touch to pediatric topics on her blog.

Generic Concerta Not Working Like the Brand Used To? It might not be that you’re outgrowing the dose…

I used to be a huge fan of generics. They save money, right? They are equivalent to the brand name, right?

That’s what I’ve always been taught and what I teach.

I’ve been jaded by many problems and now disagree with the above. Generics aren’t always cheaper than the brand name. Some generics are not equivalent to the name brand.

A recent discussion on a psychology/pharmaceutical listserv I follow brought up the issue of generic Methylphenidate HCl not working as well as the brand name Concerta. Several members had some great insight into why this is.

The discussion peaked my interest in the issue and I started looking online for information earlier this week.

Ironically today I went to pick up a family member’s medicine. We have filled at the same pharmacy previously for generic “Concerta” and have always gotten the equivalent generic.

When I looked at the pills in the bottle today, I told the pharmacy tech they weren’t OROS (see below). She looked confused. She had no clue what I was talking about.

(Lesson to all: if you have any questions, ask to talk to the pharmacist. Hopefully they will understand the pharmacology better than the tech.)

Generics for Concerta (Methylphenidate HCl) might have the same active ingredient, but have a completely different time-release system, resulting in varying drug peaks in the bloodstream.

The original Concerta (from Watson pharmaceuticals) uses a special technology to time-release the active drug. This time-release technology is called OROS (osmotic controlled release oral delivery system). There are several other time-release methods.

The active ingredient may be imbedded in various substances from which the medicine must exit slowly or a gel cap is filled with beads that dissolve at different rates. With the technology used by Concerta, the capsule IS the time release. It doesn’t dissolve.

The medicine is slowly released through a small hole in one end of the capsule. The pill works like a pump, pulling in water from the intestines, pushing the medicine out of the tube slowly throughout the day. See this photo from Medscape.

I have recently learned that not all generic formulations of Methylphenidate HCl are using this technology. This alters the time-release nature of the active medicine.  For some people this substitute might be just fine, or even preferable.

But if it seems like your medicine isn’t lasting long enough, has times that it works well followed by times it doesn’t until the next peak, or any other problems — check your pills!

You can tell the difference by closely looking at the capsules. The OROS capsules are a unique shape, a little more blunted than a standard capsule. If you look really closely at the ends, you will find that one has a “dimple” where there is a small hole covered by a thin layer matching the rest of the capsule. I just happen to have at least one of three dosages.

So if any medicine doesn’t work like it used to, look closely at the pill itself to see if it is the same as previously. If you don’t have any left, ask the pharmacy for the company / maker of the medicines you’ve filled over the past several months.

Let your doctor know if you can’t use a substitution so they can specify “Watson brand only.”  If the new “brand” works better, be sure to ask for that manufacturer.

Do not ask your physician to simply increase dosing, because with the next prescription you might get the OROS pill, and the new dose will be too high.

Ask which manufacturer makes the generic for Concerta sold at your pharmacy. Watson Pharmaceuticals is the one that is approved by Ortho McNeill Janssen Pharmaceuticals to market the OROS system pills.

Mallinckrodt markets another type (not OROS) in the US. If your pharmacy doesn’t use your preferred pill type and you plan to shop elsewhere, be sure to let them know why!

 

Reporting Adverse Events: If you have an issue with the duration of action of a different brand of Methylphenidate HCl you should report it to the FDA. This will allow them to review cases and possibly stop the substitution of these non-equivocal products. Click on this link for the MedWatch Report.

Resources:

The Pre-MMA 180-Day Exclusivity Punt? What Gives? A legal blog explaining how medicines lose their exclusivity and can become generically available, specifically the Concerta dispute.

How To Tell The Difference Between Concerta and Generic Concerta A Canadian ADHD blog provided the picture of how to recognize the difference. Generic formulations have been available in Canada years prior to in the US.

Special thanks to the members of the Child-Pharm listserv!

Why Feeding Your Child With A Spoon Is Better For Her Development

Written by Jesse Hackell MD

Growing up in the sixties, outer space was truly the final frontier. We greedily devoured all sorts of arcane facts about the nascent space program, from the rigors of pre-flight training to the seemingly more mundane details of how, exactly, one managed to eat and drink in the zero-gravity confines of outer space.

We knew that the astronauts drank Tang, which no self-respecting parent today would ever mistake for fresh-squeezed, locally sourced, organic and pesticide-free orange juice.

And astronaut foods were freeze-dried, and provided in pouches. When water was added to the pouches, the food was rehydrated and reconstituted, and the space explorers “ate” by sucking the resulting slurry out of the mouthpiece of the pouch.

Fast forward fifty years, and pouches aren’t just for astronauts any more. All sorts of fruits, vegetables and combinations thereof, in flavors which would certainly have thrilled early spacemen, are now seemingly the food deliver mechanism of choice for today’s on the move infants and toddlers.

No longer does feeding your baby on the go require a high chair, bib, bowl, spoon and yards of paper towels for clean-up.

Just pop off the top (don’t hand the top to the baby, although the caps are ingeniously designed to prevent choking should the little one happen to get hold of it and have it lodge in the airway), hand the pouch to your child, and–slurp–4 ounces of highest quality, organic produce goes down the hatch.

That’s progress, no? One prediction of the future made in the sixties actually coming true in the twenty-first century!

But I am not so sure that this new feeding mechanism actually represents progress for babies. They are born knowing how to suck nutrition out of a “container”–breast or bottle.

Progress in feeding, for an infant, comes not only in learning about new tastes and textures, but also in learning about new, more mature means of getting their comestibles out of the container and into their mouths.

These pouches (along with so called “sippy cups” with spouts) are really just bottles in disguise. (They are also a whole lot more expensive than either store-bought jars or homemade baby foods.) We do not generally recommend putting puréed foods in baby’s bottle, so why create a new bottle substitute?

Let me make a plea for a return to the older, admittedly messier, mealtime, with the baby sitting upright, wearing a bib, and being fed with a spoon. It will encourage the baby to learn new mouth movements and new positions for eating. And it will provide lots of opportunities for those adorable, messy face baby photographs!

Dr. Hackell is a founding member of Pomona Pediatrics PC, a division of Children’s and Women’s Physicians of Westchester. He practices in the lower Hudson River Valley just north of New York City.