To buy my 15 year old a vape

[Notagoodtime]

I discovered nearly a year ago that my 15 year old ds was vaping. I told him how disappointed I was and hoped that he would listen.Anyway over the last year we have had lots of discussions about it and I’ve tried to persuade him not to and even as gone as far as punishing him when I’ve found vapes in his bedroom. He has recently told me he wants to stop but is addicted to the nicotine. He has asked me for help. He has suggested that I buy him a lower nicotine vape and let him have it daily for a short time. I know little about e- cigarettes and I’m not sure the right way to go about this. He says he currently vapes the highest strength. Apparently half his year do at school in the toilets. Any advice greatly appreciated.

He's 14. How do you think he's buying all these vapes?

Utter hysteria over vapes here 🙄 an actual comparison to heroin no less 🤣

I work in a secondary school, teens from 11 to 18. Vaping is hugely, hugely popular among teenagers, we are finding them everywhere, smoke alarms are triggered, they stand in the woods at break and lunch in plumes. It's teenagers being teenagers, they try things they shouldn't.

This is kids from all backgrounds, from wealthy to poverty. So don't beat yourself up OP.

I vape, have done for 5 years to initially quit smoking. It was successful but I'm now addicted to vaping but I'm far healthier than when I smoked 20 fags a day.

I wouldn't buy my teen one, personally. As pp mentioned he can lower the dose of what he is using now. To get off it completely, probably the traditional route of gum/patches/cold turkey would be most efficient.

If he's doing the same as I was at 15-16 then using lunch money/pocket money, borrowing off friends, sharing the cost and vapes with friends etc. He's more than likely sacrificing something in order to get them, which will eventually get tiresome but at the end of the day, he'll still probably find a way to buy them and ignore the sacrifice. If he's 14 and addicted to nicotine and all his friends are doing it, then there's always a way to get his hands on them.

@Fleurtjeblau yeah so you stop his pocket money and lunch money and ground him

It's a tempting option, but the fact is that if he's actually addicted to nicotine then he'll need some help. Can't stop him going to school and while he's there he'll be using other people's vapes, then will just simply become massively irritable and unpleasant when at home with no access to one, only making the next time he vapes seem that much more special and then getting into a vicious cycle. The only method I've ever found to work in stopping smoking is to actually want to stop, and that only comes through knowledge. Grounding/no pocket money is a quick fix that's bound to fail long term, imo.

You think teens can’t get money just because you don’t give them any 🤣
Your teens maybe but I can tell you many teens would still find a way

How will teens get money then?

I vape, have done for 5 years to initially quit smoking. It was successful but I'm now addicted to vaping but I'm far healthier than when I smoked 20 fags a day

The same here, except that I'm coming up to 9 years vaping now. I had a chest x ray last year and my lungs are clear.

I am aware that more studies need to be done on vaping, and other health issues may come to light, but it's a whole lot better than smoking.

If your son is addicted to nicotine then the best option is to get him to reduce the nicotine content in the vapes, until hopefully he can get to zero nicotine and maybe stop after that.

I watched my Mum die of lung cancer. She smoked since she was 13. She gave up nicotine, after various attempts to do so throughout her life, at 79. She lived another 7 years. It was a cruel and horrible death.
It's pretty much as simple as that.

It is a nightmare, in my Daughters school she told me all the girls vape in the toilets in the break. The teachers know and they stop it all the time, emails are sent out, but there is not a huge amount they can do other than inform the parents, address it with the kids when they catch them and education etc. What about taking him to see the smoking cessation nurse at your GP and instead of getting a vape they could advise an alternative for nicotine reduction?

I'm convinced in 10-20 years time Vaping will be discovered to be responsible for illness, Cancer or something else. Your inhaling chemicals which cannot be good. It's a timebomb imo.

@Aworldofmyown "I'm convinced in 10-20 years time Vaping will be discovered to be responsible for illness, Cancer or something else. Your inhaling chemicals which cannot be good. It's a timebomb imo"

Yes this, 100 percent.

I'm a mum of 2 teenagers. One vapes regularly and 1 to fit in on nights out. It's all well and good telling them they are not allowed to do it but, as I know I did as a teen, the pay naff all attention to me as I'm a geriatric dinosaur in their eyes.

I decided to pick my battles wisely. I don't like it but I know that once something as forbidden it's allure to teenagers just increases along with the dishonesty they're prepared to go to to maintain their habits. We have open honest discussions about vaping, drugs, alcohol and sex. They are bright enough to understand the consequences of their actions and I would far rather know what they are up to than have them frightened to tell me what they're doing or when something goes wrong for fear of my going apoplectic

They will grow out of it; it's a huge fad and is endemic across all areas and classes. Anyone who thinks otherwise or thinks they're little darling isn't going to at least try it is deluded I'm afraid

Anyone who thinks otherwise or thinks they're little darling isn't going to at least try it is deluded I'm afraid

Said as a parent who is getting it wrong and is desperate to think everyone else is too. No, they aren't all doing it, it's not ok, and it is a big deal. You're deluded to think everyone else's teens are doing what you should be stopping yours doing.

Jeez OP. You’re the parent here.