To think if a young child asks about periods you should just give them the facts?

[RedStripeIassie]

My dd (just 4) is a superglue child and still comes with me to the toilet 9/10 times. She notices each month I 'have blood wee wee' which is what she calls them and she's just started asking more. I've explained that women and older girls have blood in a part of their tummy that comes out and we use types of bandages to catch it. She's asking lots of questions and saying randomly 'boys don't have the blood in their tummies' etc. She wanted to know where it comes out so I told her out of my fanny and so she did the whole 'girls have fannys, boys have willys' thing on repeat.

To me that all seems ok but I'm doubting myself now as she'll be talking about it at pre school and I wonder if teachers etc will be at what I've said or the fact she's on with me whilst I'm changing tampons etc. It's ok isn't it?

m4rdybum I prefer fanjo myself. or fange. or minge even

Minge just makes me think minging!

Fanny is ok round here. I checked

I don't think it is wrong to tell the facts about periods. But my mum was honest about periods when I asked her about the bloody sanpro in the bin and I ended up feeling freaked out. However by the time I was 11 and reading Judy Blume books I had got over my fear and wanted mine to start. Silly of me, I didn't know what agony period pains and PMS could be but that is another story.

I remember our mother telling my sister and mewhen we were about 9 and 10 and we rushed straight off to tell our 5 year old brother. We spared him no detail. Did him no harm.

"Fanny" is better than calling a vulva a vagina. (Though it might cause confusion when talking to people who use that word for the arse!)

When I was a kid my mother taught me a nickname for all my genitals, and it didn't harm me in any way, as it wasn't done out of prudishness but because ... well, I never asked, but probably because it feels a bit weird to use latin terms when talking to a toddler.

And I think that's the thing; a child who is not allowed to use the correct terms will not dare to report abuse.

A child who just has been taught nicknames for the genitals, but not been made to feel that those nicknames are euphemisms for something that must ot be talked about, will have no more problems reporting abuse than one who has been taught the correct latin terms. (Apart from possible issues in detailed description, but the most important thing is that the child says something at all!)