My daughter, Avary, is now 13 months old. She was entirely breast fed for the first 6 months of her life but then I had to ween her onto formula for medical reasons. I am a single mother, although her father is involved in her life to some degree (supervised visitation for now). I have raised her following Attachment Parenting and I strongly believe in this parenting method. I co-sleep with my daughter – have since birth. I am a very open person and have never hidden my body from her and I don’t intend to do so. I will teach her that certain things are private of course, but that our bodies are nothing to be ashamed of… but that’s a whole other issue for down the road. Anyway, over the last month or two she has become very aware of my body; perhaps because I have been teaching her the names for her own body parts; like "Where is Avary’s nose? Where is mommy’s nose? Where is Avary’s mouth, belly button, and so on." In the morning primarily, when we wake up and cuddle and play for a few minutes before getting up for the day, sometimes my tank top will slip to the side and she will see my nipple. She always seems super interested in it. I don’t think she remembers it as a source of food and she has never tried to nurse again. She usually just pushes on it like she’s pressing a button or tries to squeeze it – that sort of thing. I don’t want to make her feel that there is anything negative attached to any part of our bodies at such a young age and when she is older I will certainly teach her about appropriate verses inappropriate behavior/touching/boundaries, etc. My question is, have you ever had a similar situation arise with a child of your own? (I am not talking about someone elses child as that is obviously an entirely different situation). How do you handle it at such a young age? I usually treat it as though it is any other part of my body. I say "That is mommy’s boobie. You used to get milk from there but now you are a big girl and drink cow’s milk from a cup." Sometimes I show her that she has two boobies just like mommy does, then I go on to another body part like the ears or tummy. When she pushes hard on my nipple I say "ouch, that hurts mommy" and I leave it at that – like I would with any other body part. I also notice that when I change in front of her she seems very curious about what is under my clothes. I feel like it is completly natural for a child to be curious about everything around them. She is probably thinking to herself "I wonder why we cover ourselves in clothes all the time; all I really need is my diaper, LOL!" Anyway, how would you/do you react in these situations? Are you open with your children about your’s and their bodies? How do you act/react?
***NOTE*** I am not creating situations to provoke her curiosity. They are just everyday scenarios where she natrally sometimes sees my unclothed body. I always wear tank tops to bed so it happens sometimes that the strap slips down without me even noticing it (I have pretty small breasts so there’s not much there to keep it up, LOL)
Please only answer seriously. No rude comments or negative connotations. Thanks in advance for your polite answers!
Thanks everyone! You are all making me feel a lot better about this stuff. I sometimes… um, often have varying views on parenting issues than my more conservative family and friends and it’s nice to hear I am not alone. Thanks again!
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That wont fly when I start going into public again. My son is only 4 weeks old and I’ve already lost 35 pounds.
