Dangerous trends facing our teenagers today
Today’s blog addresses some of the dangerous trends that are in the lives of our teenagers today. Sometimes as parents we tend to turn a blind eye to these, and simply don’t want to know about them. But really, these are trends you need to be aware of, and know if your teenager is getting involved with them.
The Tide Pool Challenge
This is an Internet joke that was established in 2017, that quickly became a dangerous craze amongst the millennial generation. It involves biting into a capsule of concentrated laundry detergent in a bid to impress social media followers. But as you can imagine, real health risks are posed here. A ‘Tide Pod’ is a brand of detergent in the USA, and due to its aesthetic appearance of bright colours and shape, has a resemblance to candy. However, due to the chemical components in there, it is extremely dangerous to consume or be congested.
While one would think eating a detergent tablet would be considered horrible, it is a trend parents need to be aware of. The reported cases in the USA of ingestion have involved young children in the past, who have mistaken the tablet for coloured candy.
There are reports we hear that YouTube will remove any clips featuring the Tide Pod challenge, but it’s still something you need to be aware of. From our research, the side effects of injecting a Pod are coma, chemical burns, respiratory arrest, seizure. There is nothing funny about these.
The Cinnamon Challenge
This trend is a bit like a car crash, you just can’t look away when it’s happening, and never want to see it again once you have. What’s the challenge? Attempting to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon powder in 60 seconds or less, without the aid of fluid. Cue streams of tears, gasps from onlookers, and teenagers laughing.
This may not seem too serious one would think, it’s just cinnamon. However, digesting an amount this large without water has resulted in all kinds of visits to the Emergency Department. The lungs suffer from the ingestion of powder, that then stimulates the gag reflex, followed by inhaling of the powder that’s stuck inside the mouth and throat. The results can be respiratory disease, burns to the throat and lungs, and endless vomiting. It’s also particularly dangerous for asthma sufferers, with the inhalation triggering asthma attacks or narrowing of the bronchioles. So in other words, it’s just not safe so tell your teens to stay clear.
Sleeping with technology
So this may be a harder one to make your teenager avoid. More so because everyone can be guilty of this at some point. Falling asleep while reading news on the laptop, scrolling through social media on the iPad, last-minute texts before bedtime. It’s an easy habit to develop, especially with teenagers who are constantly telling each other every detail of their lives.
But sleeping with technology can have disastrous effects on our sleep, especially that of growing teenagers. Apart from the obvious interruptions to sleep if one’s phone is left on loud, leading to disruptive sleep, technology can play games on your brain. It keeps you awake and tricks you into thinking you need to be awake instead of switching off and resting. The lack of sleep from this can lead to tiredness and being lethargic at school and exemplifying the typical teenager issues already existing (moodiness from lack of sleep and so forth). So, advise your children to switch off more than an hour before bedtime, and not to text in bed at night.