Many parents are finding out that their children have started vaping. For parents who have tried to teach their children that they should avoid tobacco, drugs, and alcohol, it can be quite disconcerting to find out that their son or daughter has found something unhealthy to do that they never thought of.
Luckily for parents, there are a lot of useful vape tips that can help solve their problems, and there are success stories parents can read about for inspiration on how to deal with a teen who vapes.
Reasons Why Vaping is So Popular with Teens
There are several reasons why vaping is popular with teenagers.
- A lot of teens vape for the same reason teens smoked fifty years ago: they want to look cool
- They want to stand out
- Another reason why vaping is popular with teenagers is that the marketing techniques vaping companies use to target young adults works on adolescents, too.
Since these marketing strategies are working on teens, parents need to watch what their children are doing when they are online because these companies do a lot of online marketing.
Vape Tips on Getting a Teen to Quit
Parents who are worried about vaping can do several things that will make their child less likely to vape.
Have a Good Relationship with Your Child
Preventing children from using vapes and doing other dangerous things starts with parents. Among all the vape tips, the best is for the parent to set a good example.
Parents who want their children to not engage in risky behaviors should not engage in them themselves. If parents vape or use drugs and alcohol to cope, their children are likely to follow suit.
A drug and alcohol-free household will result in a better home life, which means the children of the home will be less likely to vape or use tobacco, drugs, or alcohol.
Another great way to build a good relationship is to be involved in their lives. Do not be a helicopter parent, but be there to give advice, praise, and even criticism when it is warranted. Parents who do this will send the message that they care, and children who know their parents care about them are less likely to vape.
Check Your Child’s Browser History
Parents who suspect that their child is vaping should check their browser history to see if they are visiting sites about vaping. The internet is a portal to many websites that are harmful to the psychological and physical well-being of children, and the best way to combat these sites is to have access to a child’s computer. Not only should the browser history be checked, but so should their social media sites to see if they are messaging their friends about vaping.
The best way to control what a child does online is to put the computer in a common area, such as the living room or kitchen. Parents should also restrict their children smartphones, iPads, or personal laptops. Parents who think their children need these devices should use parental control for online surfing and know the passwords to log into them so they can see what their kids are using them to do.
Know Your Teen’s Friends and Their Parents
Children are highly influenced by their friends and want their approval. There is nothing wrong with this until a child starts hanging out with the wrong group of people.
To be sure that your child’s friends are decent, meet them, and do not be afraid to make judgments about them. An excellent way to know more about your child’s friends is to know their parents.
If the parents are people of poor character, their children are likely to be reprobates, too. The apple never falls far from the tree. This is one of the hardest vape tips to follow because it is hard to control what your child does outside of the home, but following through on this will pay dividends.
Get Your Kids Involved in Healthy Activities
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. For that reason, parents should get their children involved in activities that are good for their minds and bodies. Schools in the United States have a wide array of extra-curricular activities that are suitable for children of many talents and aptitudes.
Athletically inclined children can play sports like football, baseball, tennis, and several other sports. Children who are not into sports can participate in chess club or debate, or vocational clubs like Future Farmers of America, welding, or woodshop. Children who participate in these clubs will have a healthy activity to do that gets them out of the house and away from the vapes.
Set and Enforce the Rules
Children should know and understand that their parents do not approve of vaping. Parents who suspect that their teen is doing it should tell their child it is against their rules and that if they are found doing it, there will be consequences.
Children who violate these rules should be punished. Some parents balk at following through with meeting out punishment because they do not want to harm the relationship they have with their child, making this one of the hardest vape tips to follow through on. But, children need boundaries because they are not mature enough to make their own decisions. Teens who do not know limits are more likely to be menaces to those around them when they become adults.
Parents Guide to Vaping Health Risks
Is Vape Smoke Bad for Kids?
Teens who vape are likely to suffer from several short and long term health effects that will have a negative impact on their lives.
Brain Development Impairment
A person’s brain does not stop developing until they are in their mid-twenties. Young adults and teens who vape damage areas of the brain that control attention span, the ability to learn new skills, behavior, and impulse control. Vaping also affects a child’s memory because nicotine alters the way synapses are built between brain cells.
Vaping and Mental Health
Vaping does not directly cause emotional problems, but there is a correlation between vaping and mental illnesses and conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and gambling addiction. Vaping could be a sign that a child is undergoing some stress with which he is unable to cope. Talk to them to find out what is wrong and get them the help they need.
Higher Risk of Getting Lung Disease
Many of the long term effects of vaping are not yet known, but it is known that diacetyl, a common ingredient found in e-juice, causes a disease called bronchiolitis obliterans, or “popcorn lung.” Diacetyl was used to increase the flavor in popcorn, and those working in popcorn factories got this disease by inhaling it. People who vape are taking diacetyl into their bodies the same way those factory workers did.
Vape Tips for Knowing if Your Child is Vaping
There are a few warning signs to be aware of.
- A vaper sometimes gives off a sweet smell because the aerosol gets on their clothes.
- Other signs are excessive thirst. Vaping regularly causes dry mouth.
- Another sign is irritability and anxiousness, which are common signs of nicotine withdrawal.
How Old Do You Have to Be to Vape?
- In most states, a person has to be 18 to vape.
- In Utah and Alabama, a person has to be 19 to vape,
- while in Oregon, California, New Jersey, and Maine, a person must be 21.
Vaping is not legal for minors in any state.
Real Life Stories about Vaping Teenagers
Parents experiences of discovering their teens vaping and how they forced them to quit.
“My Son’s Friends Got Him into Vaping”
“When my son started his freshman year of high school, he lost contact with the friends he made in middle school and made new friends. Unfortunately for him, and us, these were not a good crop of kids. One of them brought a Juul to school and shared it with my son, telling him that it was only flavored water. It turns out that my son liked it, and he used my credit card to buy one online, which is how I found out about this newly acquired habit.
“I confronted my son about this and asked him where he learned about vaping, and he told me that a friend got him to try it. I got the contact information for his friends off of his phone, and I called their parents and told them that their vaping kids had better not step within ten feet of my child again or else they would deal with me.
I now regularly monitor what my son does online, and I am more careful about with whom I let him associate.
“My Daughter Learned it From Me”
“My 17-year-old step-daughter and I get along very well. We get our nails and hair done together, wear the same clothes, and we read the same books. I vape, but I did not expect her to pick that up after me. One day I was taking the dirty laundry out of her room and smelled a sweet, familiar scent that reminded me of the flavors I vape.
“A few days later, after my husband went to bed, I asked her in private if she vaped, and she said yes. At first, I thought, ‘Should I let my teenager vape? I mean, I do it!’ But, being a pulmonologist who knows what vaping can do to the body, I told her about the effects it can have on the lungs, throat, and mouth, and I told her that she should not be doing it. She asked me why I did it, and I told her that I should not be doing it either. Since that day, we both decided to quit, and we are living healthier lives.”
“I Warned Him and He Did It Anyway”
“I caught my son vaping when I went into the woods behind my house with our dog. My husband and I decided to sit with our son and tell him that as long as he lived under our roof, he was not allowed to smoke (e-cigarettes included), drink, or have sex. We warned him that there would be consequences if we caught him doing it, and my husband told him if he was old enough to smoke, he was old enough to move out. He said ok, and we dropped it there. We thought that was the end of it, but how wrong we were!
“A few weeks later, my husband got a call from our son’s baseball coach, saying that he found an e-cigarette in his locker. I got an email from the school principal saying that my son would have to spend a week in in-school-suspension.
When my son arrived home, we told him that there would be consequences for him being suspended. My husband sold my son’s car and threw away his iPhone. I raided his room and took away all of his e-cigarette paraphernalia and several other things I will not mention. We also moved his computer out of his bedroom and into the living room. He is no longer allowed to use social media or be on the computer without one of us present.
“Our son wildly protested, saying that we needed to stay out of his business. Upon saying that, my husband invited him to move out, pay his own rent, and make his own car payments. He has since stopped vaping and engaging in other risky behavior.”
Final Thoughts about Vape Tips for Parents
Vaping can have several debilitating effects on a young person’s health, and because these devices are so new, scientists do not yet know all of the negative health consequences they can bring about.
But, it is known that they are highly addictive because they use nicotine, and that nicotine addiction can lead to self-destructive behaviors later in life. Understandably, parents want their kids to stop using these devices, and by following our vape tips, they have higher chances of keeping their children off vapes.
If you have experience with confronting your son or daughter about vaping, please leave us a comment. Your stories are very helpful to those who want to keep their children from vaping.
