Glad she is better:) Sarah had high yeast and was on Nystatin for months but no outward signs of it. She does get really red and irratated down there from dribbles and not wiping good enough....I keep A&D diaper ointment under bathroom cabinet and wipe her everytime she tells me it burns and her urine is clear...usually clears it up super fast within 2 days.. and the ointment is so thick you only need to do it once in morning and at bedtime. She says it makes it better to go "pee pee" without burning:) Thanks - she had a better day yesterday. Teacher says, "must have been the infection" - there wasn't an infection, as it turns out, but a couple sitz baths and some ointment on the area seems to have calmed it down, whatever it was.
Fred - Sounds like Evie was basically "scratching an itch!", at least in this case.
Since it is behavior that you've seen before in Abigail, you might consider using some social stories on "public" and "private" behavior. There are several out there (and even some games) to help teach what is public and what is private behavior. It'll take a while to stick, but eventually, it does :)
Every one of my girls went through this phase, even though not on the spectrum. My son has his own version of this that we're currently dealing with. It's simply part of the development of body-awareness and knowing what feels good to them and what doesn't. As a pp mentioned, there is nothing sexual about it at their age - at least to them. It's the adults that tend to be uncomfortable and upset about it.
And yes, if the teacher's never seen it before, then she's definitely a young teacher!
Hmschlmama2five - when did your oldest outgrow the 'scooching'? Please don't say 18 months :). Did you do anything about it other than just tell her not to?
Fred,
Glad to hear it's not a yeast infection, though yeast infections are more common than you might think. My son actually had one when he was little - I had no idea boys could get these - thought it was a chick thing.
Anyway, no schooching here, but many nieces and nephews went through / are going this phase. The way my sister and SILs handled it was along the lines of "I know this feels good, but this is something you should only do in private" and limited this behavior to the bedroom. Everytime a child would do it they would be redirected to the bedroom. I caught my nephew (NT) doing it this summer (laying in the hallway on a bunched up towel) and he is in 1st grade this year. When I said "Reese, you need to go in the bedroom and do that" he just got right up and went to his bed.
My sisters and I all apparently had this habit and we were redirected to the bedroom as well and it eventually faded away. None of us ever did it at school though. That's a bit more challenging as you can't simply redirect to the bedroom. The teacher might have to stop her each time and say "that is something we only do at home" and eventually she'll catch on.
It feels good for her, so IMHO you don't want to tell her it's bad or wrong or anything. It's like being naked. It feels good to run around with clothes off, we just don't do it in public!
Thanks Kristy - the only time they seem to do it is on chairs, so that makes it harder to deal with as there are no chairs in their rooms! Evie, also, has no concept of altering her behavior simply because she's doing something that someone else doesn't like - she needs to know what's in it for her - so, I'm trying to work on rewards if she can reign this in, but it's hard, because she's so impulsive and doesn't really think things through at all.
I'm guessing that the itchiness got her going and then she just kind of what from there. The teacher is acting like she's never seen anything like it before - but she's a young teacher.
Abigail, interestingly, use to do this much more intensely when younger, but she's pretty much outgrown the behavior.
You mentioned she is "scooting" a lot. That makes me wonder if shes been doing it a lot even before this current problem started. If so, she could certainly have irritated that area or even caused a UTI from the scooting which allowed bacteria to migrate to the uninary tract. Please dont feel creeped about about the scooting, it is not sexual at all, just something that feels different or is maybe just a habit.
My three oldest are girls, and my now 12 yo did something similar to what Evie does. She did irritate herself quite a lot, and had a few UTI's too. Also, frequent bubble baths can cause irritation and UTI's as previous posters said. You are a wonderful dad, your children are truly blessed to have you as their daddy :)
Could it be from not wiping from front to back? A nurse once told me the best thing for kids when they learn to go to the bathroom is to use water first to clean themselves. This is obviously easy to do at home. We have a small can with a spout in our bathroom and we taught our son to use water to clean himself after he goes to the bathroom first - before wiping. This is more important with his number 2's obviously. My son has a very hard time with that for number 2's but can do it for pee-pee only. But when the kids get older and their manual dexterity improves then maybe they will be able to do it. For girls after using water the nurse said keep teaching them to only wipe front to back. Using water and wiping front to back reduces infections significantly.yes i've heard the bath thing too...yeast infections in little girls? Looks like Evie might have one, but looking online, they seem like they should be pretty rare unless the kid was recently treated with antibiotics or has a depressed immune system.
Going to the doc this afternoon to get her checked out.
She complained about painful urination this weekend and had some sort of discharge and for the past two days has been "scooching" at school (basically, grinding into the chair). Not good... she's having problems transitioning because of it.
Is this a really weird thing for a five year old to have?
Thanks - her bathroom hygeine is probably not what it should be (e.g. wiping). She's at the docs now - I'll update with the results.
I just hate that she's 'scooching' at school. This is a really bad habit that she needs to grow out of soon!
Whether a yeast infection or a UTI (urinary tract infection), it certainly should be checked out... but sounds like the symptoms lean more to the UTI than yeast.
Just an fyi, urinary tract infections in young girls are can be triggered by numerous things, including high soda/sugar intake or, surprisingly, frequent bubble baths.
Hmm... thanks, interesting. She had a UTI as an infant, too - that seemed pretty odd to me, but she had a fever and everything else. SHe has been eating more candy than usual lately (we have a teenage babysitter come in after school and I think the girls are bullying her into giving them mints and lollipops or just helping themselves when she isn't looking, lol).Fred, I am sorry to say it took her several years to outgrow it. She was 8 or so when she stopped, and I think she stopped because she was embarrased at that point. We would just tell her to please go to her room if she must do that, that it doesn't look nice and we didnt want to see it.. Not shaming her, but letting her know how we felt and that she had to be in her room to do that. She would usually stop and not even go to her room. Or we would distract her often when she was younger, like your girls age. Draw her attention to something as soon as she starts. Or another idea is maybe tell her it doesnt look nice and if she does that you dont want to see, then leave the room. Just say it like you would say "hmm, I think Ill watch a bit of tv" with no emotion or anger.
I think you have your work cut out for you. It is hard to keep an even tone about the whole thing and not make a big deal out of it. You know how it is, if you make a big deal out of it, then it becomes a power struggle. Very frustrating! Keep on keeping on
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