I’ve always felt that there’s an important link between overall health, skin health and emotional well being. We typically learn about personal hygiene and caring for our skin as children, and the habits that we develop during our pre-teen years set the foundation for healthy behaviors throughout life.

As your child enters the pre-teen years, their bodies are undergoing many changes. If you don’t address these changes in an educational and supportive way, your child might become insecure or embarrassed. You need to remind them that this is a natural part of growing up and reinforce the importance of developing healthy habits for caring for their skin and body.

Here are a few tips for encouraging your tween to develop good hygiene habits:

• Routine Agreement: Between soccer practice and homework, tweens often use their busy schedules as an excuse to get out of showering or brushing their teeth. It is important to talk with your tween and develop a routine that works with their schedule. Get them to agree on a specific plan and, then, make sure that they stick with it!

• Staying Clean & Healthy: Tweens can be fussy about regular bathing, but as your child gets older, bathing becomes increasingly important.  Cleanliness not only helps your tween socially, but it also keeps them better protected against infection. If that’s not enough to inspire your child to jump into the shower or bathtub, try to eliminate the bathing battle by making it less of a chore. Position it as a time for them to relax and gather their thoughts – a luxurious “me time.” With everything from traditional bar soaps to fun flavors of body wash, it might help to let your tween pick out their own products and experiment with new scents.

• The Skinny on Skin Care: Develop a basic skin care routine that includes a gentle facial cleanser, moisturizer and an anti-pimple cream in case of a break out.  Ideally, purchase a moisturizer with sunscreen or suggest that your tween wear sunscreen every day to help prevent skin cancer and premature wrinkles.

• Don’t Fret the Sweat: A classic hallmark of the tween years is body odor.  Showering every day and wearing clean clothes will definitely help, but it might be time for your child to start using deodorant or anti-perspirant/deodorant.  Some companies have developed products that are more appealing to young people.  My favorite is the Dove® Ultimate go fresh Anti-perspirant and Deodorant line for girls, which comes in fun nature-inspired fragrances like energizing grapefruit and lemongrass.  Let your tween help pick out the deodorant or anti-perspirant they want to use and remind them to apply it prior to sweating.

• Clip It: Recommend your tween clip their nails weekly and cut them straight across to prevent ingrown nails.  If your tween is a nail biter, inform them about possible nail infections and the risk of spreading germs from their hands to their mouth.

By discussing the importance of personal hygiene and developing a routine that your tween can stick with, you will not only help them to stay confident during the turbulent tween years, but you will also encourage healthy habits that will last a lifetime.