I feel very strange writing about this but it's not something I feel comfortable talking to other mums etc about in real life.
From an early age (8mths or so) my DD started exploring her genitals. Ok completely normal and I didn't comment on it.
When she got to about 3 she had started rubbing up against soft toys (again I know completely normal) and rolling around the floor with crossed legs etc. This seemed to happen when she was bored or tired and I know this is supposed to be normal and you aren't supposed to make a big fuss but most people try to encourage their children to go up to their room. I do say that DD shouldn't do this in public and she won't do it in front of other people or at school (she is nearly 5) but she does it in front of me and DP. She does it in the car, when she watches TV and worst of all in bed next to me when I'm trying to read her a story (she asks me to put my arm round her and squiggles and squirms and goes red in the face and I ask her to stop as it makes me uncomfortable as it makes me almost complicit as she uses me to twist up against). Even writing it all down makes me feel uncomfortable.
I do ask her to stop it and tell her to save it for bedtime but because of her age I don't send her up to her room to do it because she probably wouldn't go. My partner says I should ignore it but it happens whenever she is sitting on sofa, watching TV (I try to limit TV), in the car etc. I think it has become almost obsessive.
Really I am just concerned it is going beyond what is normal for a child of her age.
Should I be doing anything- I don't want her to feel uncomfortable about her body or humiliate her but I'm not sure whether I'm condoning something I shouldn't.
I know to her it isn't sexual, it is just pleasure, something she does when bored or tired that has become a habit. I know little boys often have their hands down their pants the whole time but you don't hear many people talking about girls in the same way.
I suppose I just want to know if this is normal, excessive or a sign/red flag for anxiety or a medical condition or I don't know what.
I'd love to hear from people who have experienced similar, or someone in a professional capacity, GP, Psychologist, HV etc
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Behaviour/development
DD's excessive "habit"
7 replies
Nomnouveau · 01/04/2013 21:28
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