DD has just started in secondary school and has a small group of close friends. When she started she noticed that one girl seemed to be disliked my everyone and she felt sorry for her so she made friends with her. Initially this was because she wanted this girl to have a friend and not be alone, but as time has gone on it has developed into a true friendship and she genuinely likes her now.
The trouble is this friend is VERY needy and clingy. Lots of hugs and annoyingly tactile. She makes a beeline for my DD at every point and DD has described the friendship as claustrophobic now. DD wants to remain a good friend to this girl, but she's at a point that can't cope with the neediness.
Can anyone give me some pointers as to how to advise her to help the situation without upsetting or alienating the friend. I'm a very direct person in RL and I think my rather unsubtle approach would not be appropriate in this case.