12 year old and period on holiday

[SquirrelRed]

Hi, My 12 year old has just started her periods last week. We are due to go holiday in May but I am worried about her getting her period while we are away.
She would want to be in the pool all day every day and there wouldn't be much else for her to do.
I don't think there's any chance she will use tampons by then, and there's not an awful amount of time between now and then for us to track/predict when her period will be.
Any advice on how I can best manage this so she can still have an enjoyable holiday please?

Dr's wont prescribe a d chemist wont for under 16

My, usually very reserved, Mum actually showed me how to use them on herself. Utterly mortifying at the time but she desperately wanted me to get the hang of it and although I am still a little scarred for life I’m really glad she did as I’ve used tampons from the beginning.

I always thought they were flushable? 😳

Yeah, this just isn’t universally true though.

I started my periods at 11 and until I went on the Pill at 16, my periods came with horrendous gut-twisting cramps that didn’t respond to painkillers, along with intense headaches and diarrhoea. I threw up on the playing field during a PE lesson once when my teacher told me to ‘run off’ my cramps.

I have a really high pain threshold and was actually very stoical about pain as a child - people used to comment on it! I can assure you I was not ‘making a big deal’ out of my periods - and I don’t have endometriosis, or any other similar issues. Some women’s periods are just a lot worse than others. Some of us just get a rough deal.

It's a slightly different issue though. I very much empathise with difficult periods and if she experiences the level of pain I did at her age, not going to the pool is going to be the least of her worries. However, given the fact that OP is concerned about swimming, we can assume that pain-wise it's not too bad. Plenty of women worry about periods running holidays for reasons other than pain and I think it is unnecessary to give a child perception that periods are inconvenient, shameful or restricting in any way. Period care moved on leaps and bounds since I was 11 and they don't have to be restrictive at all.

I started mine at 13 and was a competitive swimmer so didn't really have a choice but to get on with tampons. It was mostly fine except that my mum only had the kind without an applicator which I really struggled with so get her a few different ones to try!

Why? My mum didn't make a big deal out of it so I didn't think it was a big deal. If you tell a kid that it's a big thing and that they're not ready to use tampons, they'll think it's a big thing and that they're not ready to use tampons. She's 12, she's not a baby. She will already know what tampons are - hopefully her mum will have talked to her about them as will school and her school friends. She needs to stop faffing around and get on with it. If she'd have done that, she wouldn't be worrying, in January, about something that might not even happen in May.

Make a drama, you'll get drama.

The reason I wouldn’t suggest tampons to my DD is all the chemicals in them, they don’t feel like a safe option to me. She’s 10 and not started but I have a little box ready for her and will offer period underwear, pads and a cup and she can choose.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/28/toxic-pesticide-levels-found-in-tampons-40-times-higher-than-legal-limit-for-water

On average, people use tampons for 40ish years. They're fine. Stop panicking.

I’ve always had very heavy periods but never for a full week exactly over a holiday where it’s completely ruined the holiday! You’re worrying about nothing, don’t encourage your DD to fear getting her period.

There are loads of organic tampons available if this is your only concern ( my child does sport so Pads just seem a bit limiting to me and not very nice to use).

I got tablets from the dr.

She should be able to take it earlier than that, that’s just when you need to take it by to make sure it works as once you’re bleeding you’re screwed.

It was a god send for me when I was younger!! It’s similar to a contraceptive pill, it’s synthetic progesterone. Definitely worth asking the docs about.

I remember using medication, I assume noristherone as a teen for holidays. However when we tried to get some for my 15 year old in the summer (very rare holiday abroad for us) we couldn't. Our gp won't prescribe it any more, due to not being medically needed and risky side affects apparently. They did say pharmacies would but all the ones we tried either didn't or you needed to be 16+ or 18+. Not sure if that's the same everywhere?

Edited to add, interestingly the doctors staff says they could have her an appointment to discuss contraception (which could be used to delay period in some cases), but not to delay a period...

She's tried tampons a few times but never managed them (I was the same age her age) so we bought her period swimwear. She managed fine with that, although she didn't stay in it for long at a time, and her heaviest flow days were before / on way to the holiday. We got a few pairs of bikini bottoms, so she could put under other swimwear if she wanted and only have to change her bottoms, and also some swim shorts on case she wanted to cover up more to be on the safe side. She had a big towelling robe to change under on beach (in hotel just went to room). She did swim less than she would have otherwise I think as didn't want to risk being in and out with them too much, but they worked fine for what she did. The only time we've seen a leak was after swimming once when she sat around wet in towel after, which is why she changed quickly afterwards. When in the pool itself it was fine. She won't rusk them on her heaviest days though so not sure how they would hold up.

Not all kids can use tampons. I couldn’t when I was that age. I used to swim so I wanted to be able to use them. I’d get one in and ten mins later it had pushed its way back out again, my body just wasn’t ready at that age to fit something inside and keep it there. Not everyone is the same, stop making assumptions about others and insulting them by saying they’re making a drama.

There's always the exceptions that proves the rule but if you make a drama about it before they've even tried they're even less likely to be able to use them. The OP hasn't even tried.

My daughter had swimming lessons so we bought modibodi period swimwear, she used that for a while and then one day just used a tampon and that was that! It was her decision I’d just bought the tiny ones with applicators just in case she wanted to try- mainly because I used to hate pads do thought she might too!!

I took period stopping medication when I was going on a lovely tropical and I hoped romantic holiday with my husband. It worked but something went hideously wrong and I just swelled up like a balloon. I was a size 8 and I honestly looked about 5 months pregnant and didn't fit into most of my clothes. I stopped the tablets and I was just about deflated when we were due to fly home.

There's zero reason why she can't use tampons right away 🤨

She might not want to. I never used them.

ModiBodi Boy short swim wear. My DD16 has been using these since she started, she also uses the period underwear as she has AuDHD and hates pads and tampons. It’s the most natural way to deal with periods at this age.

You literally wash them through by hand easily on holiday so my advice is get two pairs.

I’m not panicking. Weed killer absorbed into the bloodstream is not a good idea. 1 in 2 of us now get cancer, I want to minimise the risk from environmental causes, I just think that’s sensible. But you do you.

Yeah I’d have to look into that. To me a cup seems a safer option that offers the same freedom of movement etc.

Period swimwear and/or tampons, the benefit of the latter being cost and it can be harder to find pretty period swimwear. There's plenty of time between now and May to learn how to use them if shes OK with that (what i mean is don't write the option off or decide against it on her behalf). I used them from my first period at age 12 and found non-applicator ones easier and less faffy as I could really feel where it is meant to sit. I recommend the Lil-lets brand for young teens and it's what I buy in for my youth club.

I doubt I’m an exception. There’s people in this very thread saying they weren’t able to use them.