Preteens
Periods in primary school
dippyegg32 · 16/01/2021 07:21
My daughter has started her period during this lockdown. She is in Year 6, she's 10, 11 in May. I know after 8 is deemed "normal" but she still seems so young.
We're both very thankful she has started whilst at home and hopefully the first couple will be before schools reopen.
She was fully prepared btw. We've had lots of chats, had a stock of supplies ready and she's had some bits in her school bag for a while. She came and told me straight away.
What's upset her is the fear of being the only one at school. Obviously neither of us know for sure and it's certainly not our business but just how common is it really during primary? FWIW I wasn't much older, 11.5, but in secondary.
She's always tracked the 98th centile for height since birth. She's currently 5'1. Is she likely to continue this trajectory and reach a red book predicted height of 5'9 (im 5'4, her dad 5'11). Or now she's started her period will her growth tail off?
Thank you.
Skullcup · 16/01/2021 07:27
I started when I was 10 and in my last year of primary. I genuinely can't remember much about it because it was so long ago now (30 yesrs). I think my mum must have spoken to the teacher about it because I vaguely remember the teacher telling me to make sure I used the toilets with the sanitary bins in them.
Fivemoreminutes1 · 16/01/2021 07:33
I’m a year 6 teacher, and before Christmas I’d say about a third of my girls had started. I was told that three had already started when they came to me in September.
Ejb86 · 16/01/2021 07:33
I personally started in Year 5, and was the only one in my school. I had to use the teacher's toilets. It was embarrassing.
I'm now a teacher and we have a number of girls who have started theirs. I'm sure she won't be alone. X
dippyegg32 · 16/01/2021 07:36
Ah thank you for the replies. I'll have a quiet word with her form tutor on return but she has a different teacher for each subject! Question about sanitary bins is a good one.
Subordinateclause · 16/01/2021 07:37
The average age to start is now 11 in the UK so not unusual for several girls in any primary class.
Sausagessizzling · 16/01/2021 07:38
I teach year 4 and usually haveacouple of girls start every year.
When they're back in school, just let the teacher know so she'll be allowed to go to the toilet when she wants and be told which one the bin is in.
I've been told girls tend to start when they reach about 7 stone as its fat cells that produce the hormones.
dippyegg32 · 16/01/2021 07:39
@Subordinateclause great name I'm a self- confessed grammar geek!
I thought it was more 12-13?
fireplaceburning · 16/01/2021 07:43
A dr told my friend you had to be 7 stone too! She thought her daughter had started but it was actually a urine infection!!
xmaselves · 16/01/2021 07:46
I started at ten too ,was already taller than my teacher at about 5ft 4 . I think I stopped growing in height within the next year or so . Definitely didn't grow at all in secondary school and watched all my friends catch up. I'm 5ft 6 as an adult.
PatsArrow · 16/01/2021 07:46
I was 10 when I started me periods. My dd was 10 too. She'd begun to grow about 6 months before in height and developed boobs. Just after her periods started she had another little growth spurt. She was around 5 ft 4. She towered over her friends and she hated it. I was the same.
She's now 16. She's now around 5 ft 5 so didn't grow much more. She actually one of the smelled ones amoungst her friends and she's happy with it.
Looking back I think she took starting her periods so young in her stride. By the time many of her friends started she was almost a old-hat with it. It was never a huge problem in Primary and the only time I told a teacher was when she was away on a week school camp that coincided with her period. By end of Y7 she was using tampons as a way of being able to be flexible around swimming and sports etc, but she favours pads.
It is shocking when it's around 10. I thought I was dying because my mum hasn't got around to the period talk!
I'm sure she'll be an expert soon OP and will the source of information for her friends when their time comes.
louisejxxx · 16/01/2021 07:48
Just out of interest to those who have girls that are started when did you have “the chat”? My little girls has just turned 8 and I don’t think would understand it at all yet so wasn’t planning on broaching the subject until she was at least 9. It seems like so much to take in even then but if so many girls are starting at 10/11 it seems essential I speak to her by then :(
Shieldingending · 16/01/2021 07:56
Dippyegg, my DD is a bit older than yours and started in the summer but something she is finding helpful are period pants. If she's worried about leaking in school she has these with a pad and on lighter days she wears these on their own.
TigerDrawers · 16/01/2021 07:57
I was the tall one in my class but genuinely have no clue about when my periods started. All I remember about it is telling my mum and she was so excited! To this day I still have no idea why! After suffering them for 30 years I am not sure I would celebrate it! 😂
Anyway, we have a school picture where I am taller in Y6 than the teacher AND all the other children who were standing in the back row on a bench.
I was about 5' 5" at 11 and by 12 or 13 I was 5'8". 30 years later and I'm still 5'8"!
Hated being the tallest but by 16 I was distinctly average as all the boys shot past me and the girls caught up.
Shieldingending · 16/01/2021 08:01
Louisejxx I started talking to my daughter about body changes at around 8-9. In year 5 they had a series of talks in school, I know at least one of her peers had already started then.
dippyegg32 · 16/01/2021 08:01
She hates being the tallest. She's currently taller than most of the boys at the moment so I think she'd welcome a slowing of growth to be honest.
dippyegg32 · 16/01/2021 08:02
@louisejxxx dd started wearing crop tops in year 4 so we'd definitely had our first chat around age 8.
louisejxxx · 16/01/2021 08:17
Ah ok so I should probably think about it within the next 12 months then. I am hoping she won’t start in primary - she’s tall but not tall enough that she stands out from her peers, and is not even 4 stone yet. All that said - I was 11, and if it wasn’t for the fact I was august born it would have been in primary school!
OnTheBenchOfDoom · 16/01/2021 08:36
I volunteer in a large primary, they have sanitary bins in every cubicle from year 4. We usually have a couple of girls start their periods in year 4, maybe 1 in year 3. Then more as they go through school. She is definitely not the only one at all. It is far more common these days than when I was in school.
My advice, if she has a locker, or use the bottom of her PE bag, a complete change of the bottom half so skirt/trousers, socks/tights, obviously knickers all rolled up in a bag that she can take into the toilets to change in case she needs to, along with usual sanitary stuff. You can provide Calpol to the school office, most parents dose their child before coming into school in the morning and just tell us, or hand us a small note for privacy.
I tend to know who has started their periods because I am the one who can sit with them in the library or wherever just to keep an eye on them out of class. Depending on how bad they feel they either come with me to do little jobs or they can read or do their work out of the classroom and we sneak them a biscuit from our stash. 
Re talking I have sons and just started mentioning it so it is something they have always known about. But then I have endometriosis so they have seen me hooked up to a TENs machine every month. You could just say your tummy is a bit sore today and lead the conversation that way.
Mummyoflittledragon · 16/01/2021 08:44
My dd started in yr7. The youngest in her class at school started developing at 7 and definitely had her period by yr5 if not before as did at least one more girl.
lorisparkle · 16/01/2021 08:52
Have you looked into the period pants? The parents I have spoken to say they make a huge difference. Much easier to manage and less likely to leak. They are quite expensive as an initial outlay but then they are reusable.
dippyegg32 · 16/01/2021 08:56
Yes we have a stock of modibodis ready! They cost over £100 for a pack so I hope they work!!
TheTeenageYears · 16/01/2021 08:57
When I was at school the period talk at school happened in Secondary but for years now has been given in primary because there is such a need for it. She will far from be the only one in Y6.
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