At the Doctor's Office
"Adolescents should have yearly checkups," says Dr. Michael Weitzman, a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at NYU's Langone Medical Center. They should also update their inoculations — including a tetanus booster, the annual flu vaccine and, especially for college-bound kids, the meningitis vaccine. Additionally, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that teenage girls have their first gynecologic visit when they are 13 to 15, and if they haven't done so yet, get the human papillomavirus vaccine.
Diet and Nutrition
"It's a lot easier not to develop problems than it is to cure them," says Weitzman. One-third of American teens are overweight or obese, which dramatically increases their risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, asthma and other chronic ailments, including depression. While growing teens need extra calories, they should get them from nutritious sources — not high-fat, high-calorie, high-sugar foods like cookies, soda, candy and fast food — and they shouldn't consume more calories than they expend. "On average, if you eat one to two cookies a day more than the energy you need, you'll gain a pound a month," says Weitzman, adding that maintaining a healthy diet is a whole-family affair. After all, kids are not typically the ones doing the grocery shopping. "You can't have foods in the house and ask only one person not to eat them," Weitzman says.
Physical Fitness
Physicality is a fraught subject in adolescence. While fitness and weight maintenance are crucial for disease prevention, putting too much emphasis on physical appearance — especially when so many teens already feel insecure and dissatisfied with how they look — could trigger unhealthy body-image issues. One way to make sure kids log off the computer or video-game console and get their minimum recommended one hour of physical activity per day is to encourage participation in organized sports — which is also a great way to foster self-esteem and teamwork. But Weitzman cautions that sports should be primarily for the kids' satisfaction, not the parents'.
Behavior and Mood
Teens are moody. there's no way around that, says Weitzman, and being able to distinguish a minor mood swing from a serious disorder takes practice. As a rule of thumb, any dark stage that persists beyond a week, affects friendship patterns or impairs performance in school "should raise a red flag for parents that something might be wrong," says Weitzman. Aside from depression, issues that often surface in adolescence include eating disorders, anxiety, stress and more serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, as well as experimentation with tobacco, alcohol, drugs and sex. At this age more than any other, and no matter how much teenagers resist, parental communication is important to catch early signs of a problem.
source: time.com
"Adolescents should have yearly checkups," says Dr. Michael Weitzman, a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at NYU's Langone Medical Center. They should also update their inoculations — including a tetanus booster, the annual flu vaccine and, especially for college-bound kids, the meningitis vaccine. Additionally, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that teenage girls have their first gynecologic visit when they are 13 to 15, and if they haven't done so yet, get the human papillomavirus vaccine. 
"It's a lot easier not to develop problems than it is to cure them," says Weitzman. One-third of American teens are overweight or obese, which dramatically increases their risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, asthma and other chronic ailments, including depression. While growing teens need extra calories, they should get them from nutritious sources — not high-fat, high-calorie, high-sugar foods like cookies, soda, candy and fast food — and they shouldn't consume more calories than they expend. "On average, if you eat one to two cookies a day more than the energy you need, you'll gain a pound a month," says Weitzman, adding that maintaining a healthy diet is a whole-family affair. After all, kids are not typically the ones doing the grocery shopping. "You can't have foods in the house and ask only one person not to eat them," Weitzman says.
Physicality is a fraught subject in adolescence. While fitness and weight maintenance are crucial for disease prevention, putting too much emphasis on physical appearance — especially when so many teens already feel insecure and dissatisfied with how they look — could trigger unhealthy body-image issues. One way to make sure kids log off the computer or video-game console and get their minimum recommended one hour of physical activity per day is to encourage participation in organized sports — which is also a great way to foster self-esteem and teamwork. But Weitzman cautions that sports should be primarily for the kids' satisfaction, not the parents'.
Teens are moody. there's no way around that, says Weitzman, and being able to distinguish a minor mood swing from a serious disorder takes practice. As a rule of thumb, any dark stage that persists beyond a week, affects friendship patterns or impairs performance in school "should raise a red flag for parents that something might be wrong," says Weitzman. Aside from depression, issues that often surface in adolescence include eating disorders, anxiety, stress and more serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, as well as experimentation with tobacco, alcohol, drugs and sex. At this age more than any other, and no matter how much teenagers resist, parental communication is important to catch early signs of a problem. 
