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Parents & Caregivers

Body en Español

Your daughter most likely has many questions about her body right now. The resources in this section cover topics including sleep, grooming and hygiene, tattoos and piercings, the menstrual cycle, reproductive health, and sex. Use these resources to talk to your daughter about these issues. There are also tools to help your daughter learn about her changing body.

 

 

Featured articles

1. Better Sleep Month: A Wake-Up Call for Parents
2. Making Sense of MRSA
3. Questions and Answers About Sex
4. Your Daughter's First Gynecological Exam

Web sites

1. 4Parents.gov - Your children need you to guide them in making smart choices about their health and future. 4Parents.gov is a guide to help you and your pre-teen or mid teen discuss important, yet difficult, issues about healthy choices, abstinence, sex and relationships.
2.  Body Image and Your Kids - Womenshealth.gov has created a special section on our web site to help you learn how to develop a positive body image and influence your children to do the same.
3.   girlshealth.gov: Body - We have created the girlshealth.gov section on body to help adolescent girls learn more about some of the unique health issues and social situations they will encounter during the teen years. This section provides information, resources, and links to help to your daughter learn more about her body.

Publications

1. Are You an Askable Parent? (Copyright © Advocates for Youth) - As a parent or caregiver, it is very important for you to be askable, meaning that young people see you as approachable and open to questions. This publication contains advice for parents on how to be askable, including tips on how to become more confident about your ability to discuss sexuality.
   
   http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/PUBLICATIONS/frtp/askable.htm
2. Body Piercing (Copyright © Nemours Foundation) - Body art has become so popular in the past few years that it's hard to walk down the street, go to the mall, or watch TV without seeing someone with a piercing or a tattoo. This publication explains what body piercing is, what safety concerns you should have, and potential health risks.
   
   http://www.kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?dn=girlshealth&lic=175&cat_id=20438&article_set=22117&ps=204
3. Period talk: Preparing your preteen for menstruation (Copyright © MFMER) - This publication contains guidance for parents on how to discuss menstruation with their daughters. Most of the information provided is based on studies conducted to determine what girls themselves want to know.
   
   http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/menstruation/FL00040
4. Tattoos (Copyright © Nemours Foundation) - This on-line resource contains information about safety considerations of tattooing, including sterilization techniques, the type of practitioner who performs the procedure, universal precautions and risks involved.
   
   http://www.kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?dn=girlshealth&lic=175&cat_id=20438&article_set=21041&ps=204
5. There's No Place Like Home...for Sex Education (Copyright © Advocates for Youth) - This publication consists of reproducible parent newsletters to assist you in your unique role as the primary sexuality educator of your child. Five newsletters are available for every age/grade level, pre-school through grade twelve. Each issue contains relevant, age-specific sexuality information, useful strategies, communication hints, and suggested resources to support you in your efforts.
   
   http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/noplacelikehome/index.htm
6. What Parents Can Do (Copyright © APA) - On television, across the internet, in movies, and clothing stores, girls are constantly receiving the message that they should be "sexy." This fact sheet contains tips for parents on how to teach girls to value themselves for who they are, rather than how they look.
   
   http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualizationpar.html

Organizations

1.   Office of Population Affairs, OPHS, OS, HHS
   
   http://www.hhs.gov/opa/
2. American Academy of Family Physicians
   
   http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home.html
3. Center for Young Women's Health
   
   http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/
4. Kids Health
   
   http://kidshealth.org/

 

= This article, publication, web site, or organization is from the U.S. government.

Content last updated November 11, 2007

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