Not taboo: how to talk to children about menstruation

"These days" ended

Monthly - this is a completely natural process for the female organism, which, however, was considered for a long time something dirty, shamed and indecent (and somewhere so far is considered). The first for the deestigmatization of menstruation took large brands, but it seems that the main step is still ahead - to normalize this phenomenon within ordinary families.

In modern society, even adult women (not to mention men!) It is difficult to talk about menstruation - they use strange euphemisms and hide the means of hygiene as if it is an instrument of murder. However, sooner or later, any parent will have to talk to the child and on this, as if shameful, and in fact a completely normal topic.

Prepared a guide for you on how to tell your child about menstruation, to pay attention to, and how to prepare.

Speak about menstruation with a child regardless of his floor

The common view is that menstruation is mysterious "female things", it's time to send a landfill. To take the taboo from this natural process and normalize it in the eyes of society, it is important that not only girls know about menstruation, but also boys. And well, if they learn about it not from giggling classmates and not in biology lessons, but from parents who are capable of delicately and calmly present all the necessary information.

Check your knowledge

Before you have a conversation with your child about menstruation, make sure you yourself understand the question. To remember all anatomical details, of course, it is not necessary, but it is important to clearly understand what is happening in the body, which is worth waiting, and what is the norm.

It is also important to study your personal attitude to a month. Perhaps, due to personal experience or upbringing, you are accustomed to perceiving the monthly as something unpleasant, indecent and painful, but should not be broadcasting this position of your daughter - try to speak in simple and neutral language.

By the way, the fathers all these tips also touch - the girl will feel much more confident and calmer if it will be known that both of her parents are dealt with in the subject and can answer her questions without constraint.

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Start in advance

The periods of girls begin at the age of about 12 years, but in some cases they can begin before - for example, in 8-9 years.

You should not wait for the "suitable moment" to tell about menstruation - you still, most likely, miss it.

Start talking about the physiology of a person, about where children come from, and than boys differ from girls already years since 3-4, when the child will begin to understand you well. The sooner you start talking about menstruation with the child, the higher the chance that it will be a completely ordinary phenomenon for him to adolescence.

Do not limit yourself to one conversation

Conversations with a child about his body and physiology should be the usual matter in your home - and not a one-time event, which once will define forever, as a child will refer to "delicate" issues. Start a conversation from an early age and continue it as the child grows - it will help you to normalize any topic in your family and will help to establish communication on complex topics.

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Pick up the right words

Often, girls learn about menstruation from educational brochures or textbooks of biology. It is useful to know physiology, but, unfortunately, the multicolored picture of the internal organs does not help better understand how much this mysterious process actually will occur.

Therefore, try not to switch to Latin and the anatomical terms, but to tell the available, understandable and, if possible, with personal examples. Refrain from the use of euphemisms like "aunt on red zhiguli" or innocuous "female affairs." "Monthly" and "menstruation" are normal words, and there is nothing wrong with to use them in their speech.

Tell us about the available funds

Talking with a daughter about menstruation, tell her about all existing hygiene products: on laying (disposable and tissue), swabs, menstrual bowls and menstrual cowards. Threaten about how to use each of these funds.

It is also worth a detailed study in detail ways to combat menstrual pain - medication preparations, heels, relaxing exercises and comfortable postures.

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Spend experiences

To dispel the fear around mysterious menstruation, it is important to give the girl the opportunity to "rehearse" their beginning. Offer your daughter to unpack and glue the gasket, show how the menstrual bowl is folded, let it unpauls and touch the tampon.

Many girls who have not yet started monthly can worry that they "go back" and wrapping clothes. Visual examples will help you get rid of this alarm. Lower the tampon into a glass with water, pour fluid to the gasket - in general, play the commercial. Such a visual lesson will help the girl to gain confidence and dispel the fear around menstruation.

Keep the hygiene tools in open access

After you detail in detail how to use them, make sure that your daughter knows where it can find all the necessary hygiene products as soon as they need them. Do not hide them in a secret box or a long-air regiment - gaskets and tampons should also be available and visible as shampoo or cotton wands.

Execute the whole process

Even if your daughter has a huge amount of information about menstruation, when they first begin with her, it is most likely confused. To reduce the level of stress, say in advance what your daughter will do if its monthly starts at home, at school or on the street. Invite her to carry hygiene products and wet wipes, tell us where it can also find gaskets if she has started monthly, and she has nothing with him.

Talking about menstruation with the son, pay special attention to what emotions can experience girls who started periods.

Discuss how it can help if I encounter a similar situation at school, or at least as not to aggravate the situation.

Contact books for help

Unfortunately, in Russian, not so many available and appropriate age books about menstruation were published, but there are still some - for example, the book "Monthly: Your Personal Adventure." You can explore it with my daughter or give her a book for independent reading.

Download the app

After your daughter has a monthly period, offer her to choose and download a convenient application to keep track of the cycle. It will help to track the frequency of menstruation (at the very beginning they may not be very regular) and their intensity in order to consult a doctor in a timely manner, if something goes wrong.

Pay attention to mutual assistance

Despite the fact that sexual ripening often makes teenagers feel lonely and incomprehensible, it is important to remind your daughter that menstruation is an experience through which all women pass. And the general female task here is to support each other and help in those moments when something comes out of control. Share the gasket, offer your sweater so that a classmate can tie it around the waist and hide a stain on the pants, express sympathy.

Throughout life, we are confronted with the most different situations, and it's good to know that in the case of which you can get support from or become for someone such sudden support - even if we are talking only about the spare tampon.

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