Adolescents start using tobacco for different reasons. Parents can protect a child against experimentation by maintaining a close parent-child relationship, teaching skills for dealing with peer influence, and helping a child be successful in his or her activities and academic achievement.

SUPPORT POSITIVE ACTIVITIES: Help your child learn how to enjoy age-appropriate hobbies, friends, and physical activity . Make time to get your child hooked up with activities he or she is interested in.

TALK: Make a point of discussing your children's lives and feelings. Find out whether their friends are experimenting with tobacco. Talk with your child about positive ways to deal with fears, anxiety, popularity, etc.

HELP THEM DECODE ADS: Begin early. Children can imitate behaviors they view on TV as early as 18 months. Help identify images portrayed in ads ads (clean air, thin bodies, independent men and women, young people having fun). Discuss other behaviors and skills that can make a person feel good, look good, enjoy their friends, or be independent.

MAKE YOUR FEELINGS CLEAR: Children who understand the seriousness of their parents opposition to tobacco are less likely to smoke.

DO REALITY CHECKS: Point out that, despite the ads, the majority of adults and teens do not smoke and no longer tolerate the practice in public. Talk about the serious health effects of tobacco addiction. Talk about what could be purchased with $1600 (the cost of a pack-a-day for one year).

EMPHASIZE HEALTH: Kids are typically unconcerned about getting sick; tell them anyway. Teen smokers have weaker lungs, cough more, and suffer worse upper respiratory infections. Young athletes don't perform as well if they smoke. The more a young person smokes, the greater is the risk of lung cancer in middle age.

DON'T SMOKE: If you smoke or chew tobacco and choose not to quit soon, at least explain to your children that you are physically addicted . Do not model smoking in front of your children and make your home and automobiles smoke-free zones. If you and your child are smokers, think about quitting together.

IMPOSE CONSEQUENCES: If you find your child experimenting with cigarettes, treat it as an act that puts your child at very high risk of developing a life threatening addiction. Impose whatever sanctions your family uses as a major misdeed, and don't back down.