How do you talk to your daughters about periods? Share your tips with Lil-Lets for a chance to win a £300 gift voucher NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Lil-Lets would love to hear your tips on talking to your daughter(s) about growing up and preparing for their period. Or, how you faired having the same talk with your own mum.

Lil-Lets say "we are often asked by parents how best to approach that all important discussion with their daughters as they become a teen, grow up and start their periods. We know MN is a massive source of support for parents and different stages of the parenting journey and we'd love to hear your tips and experiences with this topic".

Please share your top tips on how to chat to your daughter(s) about growing up and preparing for their period. Lil-Lets also want to hear your tales of the same talk with your own mum.

Check out their video below:

Please add your comment or tip below and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 gift voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ
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In all honesty i am DREADING it! My mum embarrassed me so much. She tried to make it fun and celebratory but I just wanted it low key.

She bought be a card and presents when my period started and it was just really embarrassing.

I hope not to do the same with my daughter. I think the key tip is to regularly talk about factual stuff without embarrassment so when the time comes it is just natural to talk about periods too.

We're not there quite yet but we've got a book to read together

You have to be open with your child as early as you can and let them know what periods are and not to be scared. some kids may think there bleeding to death if they dont know like i did as my mom did not tell me and i was so scared at only 11 i was clueless.

There are some great books out there can really help you to explain things

we got teenage girls when first one had their period we sat down and spoke to her to exsplain what was happening and with the other teenagers hitting that age and starting the period it was easier because the first teenager we spoke to was on hand to exsplain to her sister so it was passed on really from sister to sister

Just give them the facts

Not at that stage but hopefully we will have many conversations about it to prepare her and just by having a veryopen relationship.

I'm quite open with my girls and they knew when they were younger that I had periods. My eldest REALLY took me by surprise as she started so early (I thought as she was so skinny that she wouldn't start til she was older) but she'd already covered most stuff at school however I wish I'd spoken to her about it more. My youngest asked a million questions about it and it was surprising to hear she thought it would be over in a day! She was carrying pads around for months before she started. Neither girls will even consider using tampons though. Even after they have been having periods for a while I would still advise talking to them about it, it turned out my eldest, three years after she started, was having two periods a month. I thought she was just getting her dates wrong until I started keeping track too.

When they get a little bit older I'll be open and honest. I felt completely unprepared when I was that age, so I won't make it a taboo issue for them

Gran, literally, didn't tell my own mother ANYTHING about periods. Mum was one of those girls who thought she was dying when her first menstruation began and as a result was 100% open with me and my sister on this subject. I've followed her example - I've told both my son and daughter that from time to time blood comes out of the special place that girls have, and that it's a pain in the neck to have to deal with, but nothing to worry about, and that it's good news and that my daughter's lucky, because the blood coming means that some day, if she wants to, she can have a daughter of her own. Both kids have known about all this from quite an early age.

They've both also seen my sainitary pads after use. Lovely! Grisly reality perhaps - but I don't believe in sugar-coating this sort of stuff. Too much information about periods? Well - you did ask.

"Recommended pads while she was a virgin"?!?!?!?

Silly.

Im not at that stage yet but when it is time, I will talk and be there for her as much as I need to be and will try and make sure that she doesn't go through it alone. I lived on my own with my dad when I got my period and had no idea what was happening so I want to make sure she is fully equipped!

I was trying to talk with my daughter about body changes and periods, but she told me that she knows all about it because they learn at school. After that it was easier to have the conversation about practicalities.

Since the kids wander in a and out of the bathroom since they were tiny, they have known about periods from as soon as they could walk and were curious enough to want to know what was going on

My kids are too young, but I remember that I was 9 and I had no talk with my mum instead I knew about them from magazines and from other girls in school. We were in a mixed class with girls from the year above, but none of them had started, but they knew about them so talked about them with us. I knew where the sanitary products were in my mum's room, it was unspoken of really. I'm going to discuss it with my daughter when she is 9 as I think she might be an early start like me.

Have always been very open with my daughter, so discussing periods was never an issue. My own parents were not very open with me, periods were never mentioned, I was too embarrassed to even tell my mother they had started!
My daughter was fully prepared when hers started, she was taking sanitary products to school in a discreet little purse, and the whole house knew the day she started she was rather proud of the moment.

Oh gosh well some great tips here I have read, what a great thread! It's a couple of years away but I have been quite open about it thus far, hoping that gives us a nice ground to build on.

My Princess is 1 and an only girl. I had 5 sisters all older and we all shared a room so i learned through bunking in with 5 females who all had there's curiosity and being nosey was how i learned but with my Lo i will have to find some quiet time away from the males and will explain everything in detail (if she lets me) she may be like me and find out other ways but i will still have "the talk" with her

I echo the thoughts on 'Are you there God? It's me, Margaret' - that's where I learned most of the bits & bobs abouts periods - although, I was always quite confused about the whole attaching towels to belts thing.. not sure when it is written, but sometime ago as who knows when belts were last used!! My Mum tried to have a conversation with me when I was about 12 - but I knew most things from books, friends & sex education classes so I was mortified when she tried to discuss so I very quickly interrupted telling her I knew everything! I'd opt for sharing a book with my daughter, then asking her if she had any questions & go from there.
Loving the 'woman's room/clean sheets' analogy from Odfod - genius!

My daughter is only 2 but I hope as she grows up that I will be honest with her from an early age and by the time she has her period that she knows it isn't embarrassing, it's natural and nothing to worry about and that accidents sometimes happen which is ok. I hope that way will work and she will ask me anything she needs to x

So, please MNHQ, what is this "Lillets Teen" thing about then?

Has my 12yo - who started when she was 10 - got to wait to use it? God it's twee and definitely smacks of trying too hard to find a euphamism. Really, I think, as branding, it's crap and not helping us mothers to talk openly and honestly with our children about this. It's like somethingfrom the 1950s "this is an adult issue - wait till you're a "teen" and we can discuss it" Yuk!

Actually I should say that DD despite not being a teen yet, doesn't use the lillet teen range- she's taller than most adult women we know and just uses bog-standard ordinary ones. We worry that the ones aimed at teens, being smaller, just won't absorb enough. I'd be quite interested in the rationale behind them and what the difference is. I do appreciate the starter pack though, DD uses the little zip up bag in her school bag - it's the right size for a bundle of pads and a pair of emergency pants.

My DD is only 5 but I'm already open with her about periods. She know that mummy sometimes bleeds and its ok because most women do it sometimes and if we didn't we wouldn't have babies.
I don't hide my san pro from her either and she know I put tampons up my vagina when I'm bleeding to stop my Knickers getting messy.
There's no need to be twee or coy about periods Just keep it simple and treat it as a normal part of life.

Same as lots of others; periods have never been hidden in this house. My daughter is 5 and always been spoken to matter of fact lu about tampons etc when she's seen them around (largely as I haven't been to the loo unaccompanied by a child in years ). She has never seemed shocked or worried, it's all completely normal to her. Hopefully when the time comes it will be no issue at all

I was always open and informative about periods with my daughter from about 10 years old. I made sure she never felt embarrassed to talk to me about any aspect of it. I was quite traumatised myself as a 14 year old girl on a school exchange trip when mine started and had my German hosts having to deal with something I was unprepared and uninformed about with all the language problems involved and my teachers on the trip being informed and stepping in too. I shudder when I think back on it. I returned home feeling so ashamed and I never told my mum about it when I got back either. I was determined that my daughter would not be left with any negative feelings towards her experience.