Pre-teen girls, 8 – 12 years old, are in a unique position from girls the same age 25 or 50 years ago. With the expanded use of television, DVDs, computer games, photo-altering programs, and other electronic devices, a girl’s image – both of herself and other females around her – has rapidly changed. Despite the fact that girls have more opportunities to participate in healthy activities than their mothers or grandmothers, most teen girls are not adopting healthy lifestyles.
The Ohio Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is aware of the unique needs of developing pre-teen and teen girls and the types of challenges that their parents might encounter on a daily basis. To address this concern, the Ohio AAP Foundation, the Ohio AAP and Ohio AAP’s Home and School Health Committee joined together to sponsor a program for parents and doctors which was held on Saturday, April 18, 2009 in Columbus. The symposium was held from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. with topics covering puberty, bone health and the female diet, vaccines, the female knee and exercise, mood and anxiety disorders, and understanding and preventing alcohol abuse. To learn more about the agenda, click here, and to learn more about our presenters, click here.
An afternoon keynote by Kenneth Ginsburg, MD addressing Raising Strong and Successful Youth, followed lunch roundtable discussions lead by medical professionals, which allowed parents to ask questions on multiple topics, including:
Columbus Parent Magazine, the Ohio Chapter, AAP and the Ohio AAP Foundation presented two weeks of feature articles about teen girls, the perils of adolescence, and what parents need to know to prepare their teens for a healthy lifestyle prior to Healthy, Strong and Ready for Teens: Parents and Doctors Working Together to Prepare Girls for Adolescence. To view the series of Columbus Parent articles, click here.
To view the Powerpoint presentations from Healthy, Strong and Ready for Teens: Parents and Doctors Working Together to Prepare Girls for Adolescence, click here.
The Ohio AAP and Ohio AAP Foundation would like to THANK our partners for Healthy, Strong and Ready for Teens: Parents and Doctors Working Together to Prepare Girls for Adolescence.
