Win Harwood, a Windsor parenting expert , says research has shown that children as young as nine years old are experimenting with this game in spite of the risks.
“It is voluntary suffocation, to get a high," says Harwood.
The choking game, also known as blackout, cloud nine or flatliner, can cause seizures, blindness, paralysis and in the worst cases, death.
Harwood says the part of the human brain which assesses risk is not fully developed in a teenage brain. "They're looking for highs, from risk. It’s not the adult brain," says Harwood.
Even though videos showing tweens and teens doing the choking game either in groups or alone, Harwood says parents should talk to their kids about it.
"Kids can handle the information better than we can," says Harwood.
And Harwood has some tips for how parents can approach the subject with their kids, no matter how old they are.
"First of all, be calm. Talk about it like the nose on your face. Don't exaggerate the facts at all," she says.
Harwood says the goal should never be to control your children "because you can't."
Dr. Paul Bradford, a trauma physician at Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, agrees it’s imperative parents talk to their kids, even if it can be difficult.
"If there's something we can do to alter a behaviour,” says Bradford. “It’s our duty to get that message out."
Read more: http://windsor.ctvnews.ca/deadly-choking-game-game-your-kids-might-be-playing-1.1186472#ixzz2MtxT5DW9
