{"id":7461,"date":"2024-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/dnevnik-majke-u-susretu-sa-tinejdzerskim-godinama\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T09:12:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T09:12:19","slug":"a-mothers-encounter-with-the-challenges-of-teen-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/a-mothers-encounter-with-the-challenges-of-teen-years\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mother\u2019s Encounter with the Challenges of Teen Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I Faced the Challenges of Raising My Children<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I encountered all the new challenges that came with raising my children, I was proud that everything seemed to pass by easily and without too much trouble. Teething, potty training, getting them to sleep, daycare, school\u2026 with both of my kids, each with their own distinct personalities, the situations were almost always similar. As a young and somewhat naive mother, I thought we had already gotten through the hardest part.<\/p>\n

“Small child, small problems…”<\/strong><\/p>\n

My husband and I were still full of energy for the new challenges ahead, taking turns as we balanced everything, knowing we had an excellent relationship of trust and cooperation with our sons. We agreed on responsibilities and had very clear boundaries \u2013 all for the sake of their carefree upbringing, because the most important thing was that both of them trusted us and understood that the rules were there to avoid the problems that life inevitably brings. Kosta was already a young boy, confidently walking into his teenage years at 13. There weren\u2019t many problems. No fights, no door slamming.<\/p>\n

We thought puberty was just a phase, a new-age foolishness invented by disengaged parents. But here comes the famous \u201chowever.\u201d That \u201chowever\u201d appeared when our younger son Du\u0161an, at just eight years old, realized that \u201cparents aren\u2019t always right.\u201d Social media, friends, this one said this, that one said that\u2026 The child hadn\u2019t even truly experienced life yet, but he already knew what he wanted\u2014and, even more so, what he didn\u2019t want. He became irritable, moody, fussy with food, tired\u2026 as if we were trying to tame an angry dragon, not a younger child.<\/p>\n

After consulting with other mothers from the soccer team, I was advised to “take him for a talk, tighten the belt, show him our teeth.” Du\u0161an had been avoiding meat for a while. We thought it was just a phase and that it wasn\u2019t a big deal since he ate everything else that provided the necessary nutrients for healthy growth. The situation became more serious when my husband and I realized that Du\u0161an was struggling to focus on school. He was getting tired more easily during practices, slacking off, mostly standing still during games, and simply lacked the enthusiasm he had a year ago.<\/p>\n

As grandmothers say: “A restless child is a healthy child.”<\/strong> That wisdom lingered in my mind for days. And as mothers often sense when something\u2019s not quite right with their children, my maternal alarm went off. Du\u0161an\u2019s skin had become drier than usual, which was completely uncharacteristic for him. I can\u2019t say that countless worries and diagnoses didn\u2019t flash through my mind, just as they do for every other mother. The first night, I spent hours Googling. I couldn\u2019t sleep a wink. I didn\u2019t even want to show my husband how worried I was because, out of fear, I was more scared of neglecting the fear itself.<\/p>\n

Oh, the scourge of our time. The truth is presented to us on a silver platter, but we don\u2019t always have the knowledge to understand it. I mostly distance myself from everything I read on the internet, telling myself that while I know a bit about economics, I\u2019m hardly an expert in anything else. The internet offers an endless supply of incorrect, alarming, and ominous diagnoses. The greatest skill is fitting your symptoms into one of them. What we can do best is notice the disturbances and consult those who have been trained to address them.<\/p>\n

The first thing I did after a sleepless night was go to our health center to seek advice. Our wonderful doctor, who has been with us since the children’s clinic, knows Kosta and Du\u0161an down to every drop of their blood. I explained what I\u2019d noticed about Du\u0161an\u2014changes in behavior and habits. I mentioned the dry skin, irritability, lack of focus, fatigue… and, from her, I received a soothing smile as if it were a gift from heaven. The experience with the doctor was the best medicine for a parent and the best diagnostician for a child.<\/p>\n

She immediately sent us to the lab where we did a blood test, and within a few hours, we learned that Du\u0161an had a vitamin B deficiency, which was causing all the changes we had been observing for some time.<\/p>\n

Our dear doctor recommended Galenika\u2019s Beviplex in granules<\/a><\/strong> because it\u2019s easy to use \u2013 it comes in sachets, tastes like chocolate, and Du\u0161an could take it in the morning before school since he tends to skip breakfast.<\/p>\n

She also explained that his vitamin B deficiency was borderline, so we shouldn\u2019t worry too much, but we should pay attention to the stress he\u2019s exposed to, as that too can lead to a vitamin B deficiency in children. Little Du\u0161an and stress at 8 years old… there\u2019s so much we didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n

Of course, I should mention that we increased his meat intake, reduced processed meats, and made sure to include fish in his diet. As a collateral effect of the emergency, Kosta, ever the resourceful one, suggested that he take a supplement to \u201cboost\u201d his brain for the first trimester!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I Faced the Challenges of Raising My Children…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-med-servis-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7461"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7467,"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions\/7467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galenika.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}