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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
how to handle body part words
so just wondering how you all do this. what do you call things such as the toilet, your LO's bum, private parts, pee and poop etc when you're talking to your LO? DD has started saying "that?" to everything, as in asking "what's that?" and she repeats everything we say. so i'm afraid to tell her the name of a body part that i dont want her to repeat. for example- when she points her vagina we still say its her "bottom" because that's what we call her bum. is that weird? what do you guys do?
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Re: how to handle body part words
I give her the name. A toilet is a toilet... her butt is a butt or bottom.
I call pee, pee and poop, poop. I call her private area her vagina (although that isn't completely correct-it's just easier).
I wouldn't call her vagina her bottom. It isn't really her bottom.
I call things what I would be comfortable hearing her repeat in public. My MIL is Italian and always refers to that general area as "cula" so I've picked that up and that's what I call it when she grabs herself and says "that?". My DH did say he was going to tell her it was "hot" so she wouldn't touch herself so much and I told him that other people may not look kindly on our DD saying that her daddy told her that area is "hot".
So, no, I don't think you're weird.
this whole thing made me laugh a little. i guess that's what i'm thinking though, i dont want her to repeat something that i would be uncomfortable with in public. but at the same time i guess there's nothing wrong really with her calling things what they are in public.
Liam's penis is called a penis. His butt is called a bottom. If I had a daughter we would call her vagina a vagina.
I see nothing wrong, shocking, or offensive about calling body parts by their proper names and teaching my kids to do the same.
i dont think that it is. just saying that i think it's a little odd to hear DD saying that stuff already.
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yeah i probably wouldn't do that, have a little boy call his penis something like "whacker"..haha
edited: to clarify
That stuff already? LOL... I'm sorry, but I just find it so funny that some people can't call it what it is. How is saying "vagina" in public odd or uncomfortable? It just reminds me of being in fifth grade and the boys going to one room, us girls in another, and how later at a sleepover we were all giggling about what we learned.
Call it what you want, but at some point she's going to learn what it's called. Why not just do it now so it's not so uncomfortable for her later?
ok i dont have a problem with it. it doesn't make me uncomfortable. and i'm not in fifth grade thanks. i know she'll learn what it was called..but i think other people got what i was trying to say. some call it private parts first and some jump right in with penis and vagina. i was asking what everyone is doing just out of curiosity.
I do think that the earlier you use the real words, the less uncomfortable she will be using those words later. It may make you feel uncomfortable but as an adult you're better equipped to deal with those feelings than a child. My parents were like puritans and we never talked about anything having to do with the body or body parts. I got my period when I was 11 and I was so uncomfortable I never told them. They only found out a year later because they found a pair of stained underwear. It was absolutely humiliating. I wish I had been more comfortable with me body and talking about my body.
What about vulva?
My friend's daughter [2] calls it "my 'gina". I think it's kind of cute. lol
Tonight before bedtime I was holding DS, and out of the blue he says, "Mommy, you have a penis?" I answered no, and he said "Eamonn does?" Yes. "And daddy does?" Yes. Then he asked about me again. Round and round. It was cute.
He has used the word penis for a long time especially during diapers and bath. Only once in public, but I was fine with it. We have only told him a couple of times that mommy has a vagina because it doesn't come up often, but he repeats it when we talk about it. I have used both vulva and vagina and I think that confuses him a little. I need to pick one. Vulva is more accurate, but vagina seems easier for some reason.
We use bum or bottom, potty for toilet (which I kind of don't like), and pee/poop.
Growing up we always refered to it as our privates. My mom was also raped as a child, so I think her reasoning was that she wanted reinforce that that area was private.
Our niece calls it her flower
I plan to use the correct terms when explaining the names of different parts of her body.
I found this on Practical Parenting (https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/practical-parenting/toddler-preschooler/development/article/-/9152879/what-to-call-kids-private-parts/)
It?s a good idea to name all body parts correctly from a young age. An arm is an arm and a leg is a leg, just as a penis is a penis. For boys, use the word ?penis? initially and then add ?scrotum? and ?testicles? as they discover these parts of their body. For girls, ?vulva? is the correct term for the external area, the vagina is located internally. A naming game at bath time of all the body parts teaches children that all parts of the body are equally important.
This is their reasoning why: (sorry - not sure why this section is bold...I can't seem to unbold it)
Imagine how you?d feel if your child didn?t tell you when something happened to him that made him feel uncomfortable, because he feared he?d get in trouble or was embarrassed or ashamed because you taught him that it?s rude to talk about the private parts of his body. Sadly, this is one commonly cited reason for children not reporting sexual abuse. Take this awful scenario one step further and consider how you would feel if the perpetrator of a crime against your child was not convicted because in a court of law your child was unable to clearly articulate what happened to him as he didn?t know the correct words to use.
You may have grown up with a quick ?birds and bees? talk at the onset of puberty, but times have changed. The current recommendation from health and education professionals is that parents raise topics such as sexuality, gender and relationships regularly, so that everyone in the family feels comfortable talking together openly about all kinds of issues. In doing so, you are helping to protect your child from the likelihood of becoming a victim of sexual abuse.
We call the toilet a "potty".
We call his bum his "hiney" or "tushie"
We call his private parts his "boy parts"
We call pee and poop "pee and poop"
We say "Potty" for toilet
"Pee-Pee"
"Poop-Poop"
"Butt" --this is for all her privates. Like I'll say "Wipe your butt" when we use the potty...even if it's just pee. And she gets it.
She knows "boobies" (Thanks Dh!) and knows that only mommy has those right now.
We use the actual words for his body parts and he hasn't repeated it. I would NOT be embarased though if he said he had a penis in public.
He did ask me what my boobs were when I was in the bath one day and I told him "those are mommy's" . That is what I will tell him when he asks about my body parts for now because I wouln't want him to point to another woman and say "boobies or breasts"... THAT would be awkward... When he is old enough to understand that he can not just say those words out loud to anyone, we'll let him know what they are.
We refer to them as "girl parts" or "privates."