Thinking of creating an "support" email address for my daughter

[Makena's Mom]

What do you think? I benefit so much from this forum and I talk to Makena about the success stories I read on here, to which she replies with a hopeful voice, "Really????"

I was thinking about creating a yahoo or gmail account for her to communicate with other kids with Crohn's. Share stories, vent, give advice, etc... We don't have any support groups where we live and none of her friends understand what shes dealing with. I can imagine her need to vent and ask questions with kids who know what shes going through.

Does it sound like something any of you/your kids would be interested in? I thought about letting her come into the forum, but I don't want her reading the bad stuff. She's a worrier.. like her mommy

 

[Jmrogers4]

My son has had a Yahoo account since he was 10 we set it up so he could communicate with kids he met a Camp Oasis (Camp for kids with Crohn's or UC). I monitored it closely and it was a big help at the time. He still keeps in touch with those kids but now that they are older they mostly keep in contact through texting, instagram, etc.
It might not be a bad idea. I know when ever something for Jack changes like recently switching to remicade he texted his friends from camp and several of them had been on it before or are on it currently and were telling him what to expect and that it would make him feel better. They were even texting him during his infusion and he was instagraming pictures of the IV and stuff.

 

[afidz]

Makena's mom
I completely understand why you don't want her to have full access to the forum, I would do the same. You could set up the email, and like jmrogers said, keep a close eye on it. As far as the forum goes, you can copy and paste stories from the forum into an email and send it to her that way. And that way you could also edit out things that you don't want her to see.

 

[SupportiveMom]

Good idea. It might help. I have suggested to my daughter to read the forum some, but she isn't quite there. She has hung out on a teen chat for IBD. I will ask her which one it is. You might want to check that out.

 

[SupportiveMom]

Ah it is here: http://www.ucandcrohns.org/chat.php?c=7