Masterbation

[gianna0480]

My daughter is 16 months old and her daddy and I have started to notice that she does a constant rubbing movement when she is laying or sitting in our laps. We ignored it at first but then we talked about it as we both felt and noticed that it is sexual.

She

[Cookie48]

A related discussion, How to encourage toddlers to discontinue masterbation was started.

[mommyg874]

A related discussion, toddler masterbation was started.

[cassandra05]

A related discussion, toddler masterbation was started.

[iLovemygirls]

I am on the net searching the topic due to the fact my 4 year old has started exploring.  Although, it seems to be more than  exploring to me.  I catch her with her hand in her panties from time to time, but lately have noticed some activity.  The first time I saw her, we were on vacation napping, and I noticed her hips begin to move so I made sure I was seeing clearly and I stopped her... I asked her if someone had touched her or showed her to do that; she said no. I just feel that this is unusual behavior for a child so young.  So today I was watching her in her room and noticed she had crawled underneath her bed, which is high off of the floor.  I saw her hands in her panties and then she actually lifted her legs off of the floor.  I was very much disturbed by this and I called her name.  She started to cry b/c I scared her, but I told her not to be scared and that she could tell me anything.  I let her know that is her personal body part & nobody else is to ever touch her and for her to tell mommy anything.  I asked her if anybody had and she said no and she would tell me if anybody ever does.  She is a beautiful child and I have always feared someone touching her so my alarm was set off by her behavior.  I don't know if I was wrong by asking her those questions, and I am unsure of how to handle the situation.  To know is better than not knowing, but to see it is another thing. Anyone have suggestions or a similar problem with their child at this age?

[stac8019]

yes, i was also always afraid that my dau would masterbate in public or around others.  When your dau touches herself in public,  just gently move her hand, and say no-no.  you should start her early with knowing it isnt the nice thing to do.  When she is in private,  let her touch.  this will teach her that there is a right place and a wrong place to do this activity.

[gianna0480]

I agree that it didn

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

To employ the term 'sexual' with a toddler so young is misleading. In other words, we can attribute to a sixteen-month-old characteristics which are really not suitable for a child that age. Can the stimulation of the gentials be pleasing to a very young child? Absoulutely. But this is not sexual in the sense we might mean for an older child. Remember that children who are very young are primarily pleasure-seeking beings, and almost all of their behavior is designed to meet that goal. And young children learn ways to soothe themselves. Stimulation of the genital area can be one of those ways. Because you don't want it to develop into a habit pattern, it is best to distract the child, but in a casual manner. There is really no need to 'set limits' around the behavior, but interrupting it by redirecting and distracting can be useful.

[stac8019]

Im not sure it is so normal.  my dau started rubbing herself at age 3, the docs also said that she would grow out of it,  but she didn't. at 5, again, the doctor said not to worry.   So I have dont nothing, and now at 9 yo, she is masterbating more than ever. I think becasue i didnt say anything, she assumed it was ok. she is now rubbing herself on eveerying and i have caught her inserting things into her.  so address this now, and dont ignore it.

[xmsrlong]

This sounds perfectly normal as the infant/toddler is just exploring herself.  If she is doing it at 5 or 6, that might be something else.  Also, you want to make sure she doesn't have any type of infection down there.  Since she is still non-verbal, if she has a urinary tract infection, this may be another reason for this behavior.  Short of that, I would think its normal for a child this age to explore their body.