Back to school also means back to the doctor's office. While most athletes are required to get physical exams to compete on school sports teams, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends checkups annually for everyone up to age 21.
"Sometimes parents think their child is healthy and they don't really need to come in," says pediatrician Wendy Sue Swanson of Seattle Children's Hospital and the Everett Clinic. "But we do so much preventive work during the exam, it really is important to follow through every year."
As teens transition to adulthood, she says, physicians can monitor their many physical, emotional and cognitive changes. Besides checking for normal physical development, they look for signs of unhealthy nutrition, sleep disorders, depression and substance abuse, including cigarette smoking.
Don't be surprised, Swanson says, if the doctor wants private time with kids 14 or older. This allows a teen to ask questions about sensitive topics -- contraceptives, problems with emotional or substance abuse in the family -- and to become advocates for their own health care.
Good doctors will ask if teens are making good choices, Swanson says. Car accidents, homicides and suicides are the leading causes of teen deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
"We're not the police and not there to get them into trouble," she says. "We're just there to help them live as long and healthy a life as possible."
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