What should I do?? My 9yr old has cut himself with glass!

[muchbetter]

My son has been playing round outside today, and he came in for a drink, and I noticed some cuts on his arm. When I confronted him he said he'd fell over and cut his arm on glass. But as I looked at his arm there was around 15 of them and you could tell he hadn't done then my accident.
As I pestered him for an explanation, he then told me he did it on purpose with glass. When I said why, he said he "thought they would look cool".
These are about 1-2 inch wide and have all been bleeding. I said tomorrow I am going to go to school and see what they say, and if need be I will call the doctor.
I am concerned there maybe an underlying problem, but have no idea of what.
I called my friend and she said that I shouldn't worry too much as she thinks everyone has probably done it once. I'm not too sure of that.

Could this be a 1 off, or is this self-harming?? Our family has a history of depression, and my uncle killed himself a few months ago from a being along time sufferer??

Am I over reacting??

TIA
xx

he has just wrote me a letter that says;

Dear mum
I wasnt thinging at the time and just did it, I just picked up the blunlest peice of glass and just slid it across my skin at first it was a white scratch and then was bleeding a bit.
please forgive me
sorry

xhis namex

What would you do?? Im really baffled?

tbh, i think unless it happens again, you shouldnt be too worried regarding the depression/selfharming side of things. has any of his friends been in an accident in the last few days and has cuts?

Lmccrean, no none of his friends have cuts or anything, this is really out of the blue. I just cant understand it.

Don't really have any advice. Some kids used to do it in year 7 when I was at school, no idea why.

Having some experience of self harm - I would ask him how he felt when he did it. Self Harm in my opinion comes from frustration at not being able to express yourself and a low opinion of yourself. If he did it because he thought it would look cool - I don't think it is self harm. I would have a chat with him and gauge how he feels about himself - I would also tell him how dangerous it is and then keep an eye on him for the next few weeks.
HTH

elsmommy, I know, ppl at our high school used to scratch their boyfriends name into their arms with a compass. But hes still at primary and is only 10 nxt month.

Spoo, I agree with that, he does have trouble with frustration, he flairs up really quick. He does say that hes stupid, and I do think he has a low opinion off himself. When I asked how if felt he shrugged his shoulders, and when I asked did it hurt he said a little, and I said why did you carry on, he just shrugged again.

You could ask him what he was doing before he cut himself and that might give some indication whether he did it out of anger. I suggest you keep and eye on him and if it happens again then take things further.

i disagree... i think you SHOULD seek proffesional help NOW before ti gets out of control...

If he doesnt do it again and has learnt his lesson then great anyway... but i think its def worth a trip to the GP

Good luck!

We had experience of self-harming, although with an older child, in our family. There can be different reasons for doing it. As Spoo has said, it can be due to personal issues but I was surprised to learn that it can also be a copycat thing, and that it's quite common for a kind of mass hysteria to hit a school or other group of children with quite a few participating in this this sort of behaviour for a short time. Hope you manage to sort it out soon.

Thanx everyone for all your great advice. I have an appointment to see his teacher later o today, my plan is to see if she thinks he has any problems at school and if hes happy there. He did tell me last night that hes finding school hard work, and got upset that he thinks hes rubbish at school. after speaking to her I will book in at the doctors and go on from there. Hopefully this will pass.

Thanx again

Let us know how you go Much!