by Roberta Velyn

Created on: December 25, 2007

When should you introduce your daughter to the reality of menstruation? As a young mother, the question was something I hadn't even begun to consider when out of the blue, it was time.

My daughter was six years old and my son almost five when I was pregnant with their sister. One day one of the kids asked a question about the baby, and I thought it could be better answered with pictures than with words, so I pulled out a book I'd picked up during my first pregnancy - "A Child Is Born" by Lennart Nilsson. It's a book of "photographs of life before birth and up-to-date advice for parents" - and, apparently, for children. I found the photos that answered the question, and then did a brief overview of the book with the two of them. I got a little carried away, having not looked at the book for several years, and when I looked up from my little presentation, both kids were sitting there with their mouths open. They were completely fascinated, so I did what anyone trained in early childhood education would do - I said to myself, "Aha, a teachable moment!", and I left them with the book and an invitation to call me if they had any questions. Two hours later they were still huddled together over the book, murmuring quietly as they made their way through the story of human reproduction. They could both read a little, so were able to glean enough information from the text that they didn't have any questions right then, but over the next few weeks the queries started to come, and they were such that it was obvious that the kids had understood the book very well. Now they wanted clarification on details, which often necessitated going back to the book and explaining diagrams or big words.

That was it. That's all it took to prepare my daughter for her menstrual cycle. Feminine supplies were always easily accessible in our washroom, and I'm sure she experimented with them before her first period arrived, because when the time came she knew exactly what products she wanted to use. We had a couple of months warning before her first period, because she experienced full-blown PMS a couple of times before there was any flow. Her backpack was stocked, but the first stains showed up on her bed sheet one morning and she wept, saying, "Mom, this is going to be such a hassle." And it has been. She's one of those unfortunate women for whom PMS is dramatic and periods are debilitating - nausea, migraines, severe cramping, backaches, unpredictable periods, and extremely heavy flow. Those

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