b'night is also vitally important. Sleep hygiene for interaction with other children and teensincludes maintaining a regular schedule with MS can help, even if the child or teenofbedtimesandwake-ups,minimizing isnt ready for interaction: caeine and sugar in the later half of the day,Oscar the MS Monkey (mroscarmonkey.org,)sleeping in a cool, quiet, and dark room. is a patient-friendly organization that oersMinimizing screen-time before bed (so dicult education for kids and teens as well as parentsfor teens) is imperative. and caregivers. They also oer a camp everyPsychologically, supporting children and summer where teens with MS ages 13-18teens is multifaceted. Emotional support is can come together for fun camp activities.paramount, as the burden of the disease is See more information on page 32.too much to shoulder independently. But thesupport comes in many ways. One way isMS Focus provides educational materials,allowing for joint decision-making around such as the booklet When Your Child Hastopics related to their disease. Initially, this MS. Receive a copy by contacting support@may be a frank discussion of how big the sphere msfocus.org or call 888-MSFOCUS (888-of support should be. For many children and 673-6287)teens, they would prefer to limit the numberThe National MS Society also providesof people who are aware of their diagnosis. educationforcaregivers,families,andFor many parents, the opposite is true. Both pediatricpatients withMS.Checkout:patients and parents should be able to discuss nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS/Who-their experience of this diagnosis from their Gets-MS/Pediatric-MS. perspectives. However, each should respectFor parents andcaregivers, the Pediatric MSthe wishes of the other. Alliance (pediatricms.org) is a valuableOutside the family resource. Another way patients can be supported by Foreachpatient withpediatricMSthecaregivers is with the choice of disease- question of how and what to tell the child ormodifying treatments. I like to remind patients teens school comes up, and rightly so. Manythat No medicine works if you dont take it. children and teens diagnosed with pediatricFor example, an oral disease-modifying therapy MS have cognitive changes early in the coursemay have a proven ecacy in clinical trials. of disease to varying degrees. This is certainlyHowever, if one forgets to take the pill 50 frustrating for the child or teen. Not knowingpercent of the time, it is not going to work for how to support the student can be frustratingthat child or teen; looking at other options is for caregivers and school personnel also. Aappropriate. Consultation with a pediatric MS formal neuropsychological evaluation can helpspecialist will ensure that all options for treatment to better identify strengths and weaknessesof disease are available. A list of pediatric MS that the student may be facing. These resultscenters can be found at www.usnpmsc.org. can inform discussions between caregiversSupport for a child or teen with MS comes andschoolpersonnelabouthowbesttofrom sources outside the core family also. For support the student.many teens, the feeling of Im the only one For each of my patients, I recommend aamplies the stress and depression that can 504 Plana formalized agreement betweenarise. Knowing there are resources available thefamilyandtheschoolspecifying23 msfocusmagazine.org'