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Helpful tools for your daughter

• Guide to Your Period
• Menstrual Cycle Calendar for girls
• The BodyWorks program is designed to help parents and caregivers of young adolescent girls (ages 9 to 13) improve family eating and activity habits.

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. Medical Care and Your 13- to 18-Year-Old
2. 5 Ideas for Better Sleep
3. About Birth Control: What Parents Need to Know
4. Body Piercing
5. Encouraging a Healthy Body Image
6. Hygiene Basics
7. Questions and Answers About Sex
8. Tampons, Pads and other Period Supplies
9. Tattoos
10. Talking to Your Child about Menstruation
11. Talking to Your Child about Puberty
12. 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.     HPV Vaccine: What You Need to Know - This fact sheet discusses the benefits and risks of getting the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. It also defines HPV and outlines who should get the vaccination, who should wait, and where you can get more information.
   
   http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-hpv-gardasil.pdf
2.   Parent Portal - This website compiles all of the information within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS, about parenting. It has a wealth of information, covering topics such as child safety, immunization schedules, and developmental milestones.
   
   http://www.cdc.gov/parents/
3. 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/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D475%26Itemid%3D336
4. Period talk: Preparing your preteen for menstruation (Copyright © Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) - 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
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/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D589%26Itemid%3D177

Organizations

1.   Division of Adolescent and School Health, CDC, HHS
   
   http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/
2.   Office of Population Affairs, OPHS, OS, HHS
   
   http://www.hhs.gov/opa/
3. Advocates for Youth
   
   http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/
4. American Academy of Family Physicians
   
   http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home.html
5. Center for Young Women's Health
   
   http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/
6. Clear Up Skin Care
   
   http://clearupskincare.org/index.html
7. KidsHealth
   
   http://kidshealth.org/

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

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Content last updated November 11, 2007

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