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Talking to your daughter about periods

By Giulia Draycott

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Period pains

As well as cramps, she may feel tired or faint, suffer from headaches, sore breasts, or even sickness and diarrhoea³. If so, don't just dismiss her moans. Whether you run her a hot bath, suggest a hot water bottle or offer painkillers, she's learning that there are positive ways to soothe herself, rather than feeling helpless and miserable.

If you can establish a frank and open communication between you from the start, it will make it all the easier to offer guidance on personal hygiene once her periods become a regular event.

Woman to woman advice

Particularly if your daughter starts her periods when she's quite young, say at 10 rather than as a teenager, you might be taken aback by her unconcern for 'pantyliner etiquette'. This is when you need to offer a quick tip, woman to woman, on how to dispose of used pads and wrappers discretely.

Promoting the pleasures of showering and bathing as a pampering activity is a more positive way of encouraging cleanliness than marching her to the bathroom, tempting as that may be. Even providing a cute makeup case or purse in which to carry her pads or tampons will help her feel fashionable and feminine, rather than hormonal and horrible.

All these little things count - and make her feel loved when she needs it most. And perhaps that is the most important message of all, however you express it. As she's embarking on one of the biggest physical changes in her life, she needs to feel safe, accepted and understood. It's one of the greatest gifts any mother can give her daughter.