How do you explain what periods are to your daughter?

Answer 1

The time people say is when you start seeing the puberty signs in your child. This is not true. You should start the talk about 2 months you really want to have this talk. You should start out simple. Use correct words like vigina(in a boys case penis). This will make your "talk" simpler. Then after the words are comfy,give a simple def.( a period is a signal letting you know that you are able to have a baby. When you are not using an egg the egg is realsed and blood will follow. ) make sure that she knows that it is normal and every girl/women gets it. The important thing is to let her know when you first got your period because this will be a tell tale time of when she gets her period. Let her know and even show her where your supplies are. Start the first when she is about 8 with the vocab and then progress when you feel she is ready and you are to.

Answer 2

If your daughter has already experienced her first menstrual cycle, explain to her that her body is changing from a girl to a woman or "big girl" if she starts somewhat early. Until she understands what is going on with her body assure her it happens to every girl. Schools should provide assistance to both girls and boys when they are about 11 telling them to prepare for the drastic changes their body will go through. After, if she still has questions, go ahead and explain to her with pictures either online or in a book. She will be disgusted but what child isn't?

Answer 3

There's nothing to say that your daughter should use a tampon.

It's recommended that younger women start off with menstrual pads, if they want to progress onto using internal options it's best to encourage young women to use safe options like menstrual cups or softcups. Unlike tampons cups pose no risks of vaginal infections, increased cramps, dioxin exposure, or Toxic shock syndrome - this also makes cups more convenient as they can be worn for up to 12 hours with any flow and at any time, thus making menstruation easier and your daughter isn't required to remember to follow a lot of precautions as they'd have to with tampons.

If your daughter does want to use tampons then she can as long as she feels ready and you can trust her to be responsible enough to use tampons correctly - make sure she understands the health risks and how to use tampons, encourage her to use organic tampons over commercial tampons.

Answer 4

When she is mature enough to make an educated deciscion about using tampons, and is able to follow precautions to reduce her risk of tampon-associated health problems. Ideally you should encourage your daughter to use safer options such as sanitary pads, menstrual cups, or softcups - the latter two are also more convneient for her.

If she is determined to use tampons be mindful of the following....

• Tampons are not recommended to pre-teens or teens.

Tampons are linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), this is caused when certain bacteria multiply and start producing TSST-1 toxins - these toxins enter the body and if lacking immunity the toxins overwhelm the immune system, this can be fatal. Pre-teens and teens are less likely to have antibodies to TSST-1 toxins so are at far higher risk of contracting TSS.

Many tampons are bleached, this results in their containing a toxin called dioxin - although levels of dioxin in tampons is low there is no such thing as a safe level of dioxin, cumulative exposure via tampon use can lead to dioxin building up in the body so putting women higher risk of reproductive problems like infertility or endometriosis, and higher risk of cancer. The younger women start using tampons the longer they're exposed to dioxin so higher risks.

Many younger women also may not fully understand the risks of tampons in order to make an educated deciscion about using tampons, and may younger women may not be mature enough to follow precautions in order to reduce risks when using tampons, thus higher risk.

• It's recommended to wait at least 6 cycles before using tampons.

One risk factor to Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is absorbency of the tampons used - tampons absorb vaginal moisture as well as blood, this causes ulceration to the vaginal tissues that give TSST-1 toxins responsible for TSS a more direct route into the body. When periods first start there is often no pattern to how heavy or light flow is, and even if there was a young women would not have menstruated long enough to know their flow pattern - thus they wouldn't know what absorbency to use, so risk using too high an absorbency.

What is recommended to younger women...

It's best to stick to sanitary pads at first until a young woman knows her periods better, if she does wish to use internal sanitary products she should consider options such as menstrual cups or softcups are far safer than tmapons so safe to use at any age and from first menstruation - cups pose fewer risks (no known risk of TSS and no dioxin), have fewer precautions to follow, and they can also improve body-literacy as well as helping make menstruation easier so helping younger women feel better about their body and menstruation.

Answer 5

She should only wear a tampon when she is having her period. If not, taking it out can be painful, believe me, I know.

Answer 6

Get her Mum to show her.