How do you explain to a 3.9 year old what a tampon is for?!

[notnowbernard]

DD1 just ran up to me with a tampax in her hand.
DD - what's this?
Me - it's something ladies use
DD - what's it called, though?
Me - a tampon
DD - What's it for?
Me - (crappy explanation about it helping a tummy ache)
DD - what do you do with it though?

Got a bit stuck at this point, tbh!

'Luckily' DD2 fell over at this point and all were distracted...

What do you say, though?!

DS has followed me to the loo every since he could move so now at 3 years old is pretty used to me using my mooncup. He thinks its some kind of great magic trick when I have in my hand one minute & it's gone the next ...but he has asked questions in the past about it. All I've said to him so far is that it goes inside Mummy to catch the blood from my period and he seems happy with that explanation so far...but will expand on it if he starts asking questions about what a period is or why I have blood etc. I'm a great believer in telling the truth to littlies...but there's no point in giving a detailed, complicated answer if a simple one will do

mustsleep, it took me about 48 hours and one desperate post for frannyandzooey, who knows everything there is to know about mooncups, to get the hang of it. I haven't looked back since, and now confidently wear white trousers when I have my period (I hadn't done that since an awful incident when I was about 16)