babyshrink.com

We bloggers check our blog traffic to see how many “hits” we’re getting. My software also tells me how you got to me — what you entered into the search or URL line to get to BabyShrink — and this is where it gets interesting. This time of year, I get a lot of searches that look like this:

SHOULD+I+SNEAK+MY+TODDLER+INTO+PRESCHOOL+IF+SHE+IS+NOT+FULLY+
POTTY+TRAINED?

AND

MY+KINDERGARTENER+HATES+SCHOOL+WHAT+SHOULD+I+DO?

The demand is so strong for these topics that I’m re-running these 2 posts together. So without further ado, here’s my post on potty training rules in daycare and preschool – you’ll see that I have some pretty strong opinions.

And here’s my post on what to do if your poor little kindergartener decides that they would rather NOT be a big boy or girl anymore and stay home after all.

I’ve been there more than once myself, so I can sympathize. Check out those posts and let me know what you think!

Aloha,

Dr. Heather
The BabyShrink

Dear Dr. Heather,

I am worried about my 3-year-old daughter, who has made 2 comments about her “bottom” in the last 2 weeks. She didn’t want me to look at her bottom when I was putting a pull-up on her. When I asked her why, she said “I don’t know.” And visiting her grandparents’ house, she was getting dressed for the day and told her grandma that she didn’t want grandpa to see her bottom. I know that her grandpa would NEVER EVER do anything inappropriate…as a matter of fact, he has never even changed her diaper when she was younger. There is nobody else who she is in contact with who would EVER do anything inappropriate either. But I am concerned. I have never used the word “bottom”. I do not leave my girls alone with men or even just grandpas or other children (like playing in their room by themselves). They have to play where I can see them.

What I want to know is this: Do preschoolers develop a self-awareness of their body to a point where they don’t want certain people seeing them in their undies, or in the bathtub….at what age and is this normal? What should I be doing at this point? My number one priority is protecting my young daughters.

Signed,

Anonymous — and Fearful — Mom

Dear Fearful Mom,

Sometimes it’s hard to see our babies venture into territory like this. Body awareness, along with a sense of “private parts”, is a first step in a child’s developing sexuality. This can trigger strong feelings in us as parents, especially for those who have lingering issues over sexuality, or perhaps have experienced some sort of sexual abuse or inappropriateness in our own pasts. The natural response is to hypervigilant about any possible danger, and to protect your child at any cost. But this can get in the way of your child’s growing — and normal — awareness of his or her own body.

So YES, children do start to develop a beginning sense of body awareness — and privacy — by age 3. It’s not a fully-formed sense yet, but preschoolers do start to pick up on the fact that some areas of the body are “private”. It’s a complicated idea and so at first they can get confused. They might not totally understand whom you DO and DON’T show your private parts to….it would not be unusual for a 3-year-old to act shy about her “bottom”, even with a parent. Then there may be other times where she will run around naked, with no inhibitions. They’re trying to figure out the “rules” about who can view which body parts. It’s a long process that takes at least a couple of years to really come to grips with what is a complicated — and “loaded” — concept.

You mention that you’re worried about where she heard the word “bottom”, since you don’t use it in your family. You might think about where else she might have picked it up. Does she go to preschool? Or have friends that use the word “bottom”? Those are possibilities. She could have even overheard a mother talking to her child about it at the grocery store, for instance, “Sit on your bottom when you are in the shopping cart.” Of course I can’t know, but I’m just thinking of how often you hear parents talking to toddlers and preschoolers about stuff like that in public. Maybe that’s where she heard it.

Now, it sounds as if you are afraid something inappropriate might have happened. Of course I cannot say one way or another if that is the case; I’m not evaluating your daughter, only giving you some parenting information. But I can tell you that, usually, children who have been sexually abused show MANY signs of disturbance and regression including sleep, appetite, behavioral, and other problems. Simply using an unfamiliar word — by itself — would not necessarily concern me. I would look at her OVERALL behavior over a period of time. Of course if you have reasonable suspicion, you should report those suspicions to her doctor and the authorities. But hopefully this is just part of the normal process of your daughter learning about “public” and “private” body parts — a task that all preschoolers do work on at this age.

You might also want to check out another article of mine on the normal development of sexual sensations in preschoolers. Click here for it.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you need more help.

Aloha,

Dr. Heather
The BabyShrink

Hi Dr. Heather,

I am in desperate need of help. I have an almost-4-year-old son who is afraid of public restrooms.

Sometimes a scary place for toddlers

At 2 1/2 years old, his preschool teacher thought he may have a speech delay so we did early intervention with Easter Seals through the State run program. Turns out he just wasn’t ready to talk. (Now we can’t keep him quiet.) We had started potty training him and he was doing so well at home. I thought nothing of it until we went out and he screamed and cried and just didn’t want to use the public restrooms. He said he was afraid of the noise. He also doesn’t like the restrooms with the auto flush feature. We went to the mall almost every afternoon to try to “desensitize” him of his fear. Within a month he was fine. He would go to the restroom at school and in public.

In August of last year, he started at a new school. He was fine the first month and all of a sudden he stopped going to the bathroom at school. He will use the school’s restroom if I’m there, but he won’t go with his teachers or his classmates. This causes him to have accidents during school…especially at nap time. When I take him to school, we use the restroom. When I pick him up, we use the restroom. But he just won’t go with his teachers.

Now he has a fear that the toilet will clog. He cries while sitting on the toilet, asking if it will clog. I know he has anxiety issues but I’m just getting really frustrated and don’t know how to handle this situation.

What do I do? I’m afraid that his school will not let him come back next year if this keeps happening and more importantly, I’m afraid he’ll be like this as an adult.

Any advice would be appreciated!
Thank you,
Kathy

Hi Kathy,

Please don’t worry about his future as an adult. So many of these fears are passing things in childhood. Of course I cannot guarantee he won’t be an anxious adult, but the presence of anxiety in early childhood is extremely common and is almost always normal (and passing). Potty fears are one of the most common, especially with those super-loud (and uncontrollable) automatic flushers. Who ever thought THOSE were a good idea?! Nobody with young children, that’s who.

Now, think back: did anything happen at school to upset him? Did the toilet clog one day and overflow? Talk to his teachers; use your parent detective abilities to see if there is any connection to something upsetting that happened. Then you (and his teachers) can try to slowly reacquaint him with the potty, understanding his fears.

I also wonder about his school. What is the teacher/student ratio? Ideally, one teacher would be assigned to assist and support him with potty trials throughout the day, with no pressure. The pressure will only make it worse. These kinds of problems are really not that unusual in preschools. The teachers hopefully can be asked to support him a bit more. Perhaps a brief return to using Pull-Ups might be considered. Ask him if it would help him at school, especially at naptime. He might feel reassured simply to have the option. He shouldn’t be shamed because of it; it’s just a temporary measure until he feels more confident. Assure him that, soon, he’ll feel better about the potty at school but until then, why not use the PullUps so he doesn’t have to worry about an accident? Lots of 3 and 4-year-olds use PullUps.

But I also hear that you have an underlying concern about your son’s anxiety level, and have had good experience with help in the past. Why not ask his previous therapists if they have any suggestions, including the possibility of an evaluation by a child psychologist, just for you to get some more information and hopefully settle your own anxieties about him? Because your son can sense YOUR anxiety too — and you don’t want him to internalize that you’re fearful about him. If you have a concern, promptly get it checked out, so that you can either get him some help (and feel relieved that he should feel better soon), or feel relieved that everything is OK.

Finally, have you checked out my other posts on “Fears”? Go to “Categories” to the right and below this post, then click on “Fears”. There will be several posts that come up — you can keep clicking “older entries” to see even more.

Good luck and let me know if you need more ideas.

Aloha,

Dr. Heather
The BabyShrink