Dr. Sanjiv Kanaujia

5 Tips on How to Talk to Your Child About Sex for the First Time

You may find it very uncomfortable to talk to your child about sex for the first time, but it’s a parenting skill you need to acquire. Encouraging your child to discuss their sex-related queries with you will ensure that they don’t pick up wrong information from undesirable sources, or conceive notions that might affect their overall behaviour.

Moreover, it will also strengthen the bond between you and your child. Here are some effective tips that will make it easier for you to talk with your child about sex.

1. Be confident

First of all ensure that you have all the facts correctly arranged in your mind. Do some research, if necessary. Set a specific plan beforehand on how you intend to solve your child’s sex related queries. Always remember the fact you are your child’s role model and you need to have the correct knowledge to educate your child about sex. Face all the questions asked by your child confidently, without letting him/her sense your discomfort.

2. Use proper anatomical terms

Use the actual anatomical terms while referring to the various body parts, like vagina or penis for example. If you use any indirect word or expression to convey your message, the child will sense your embarrassment in talking about certain body parts. This will create a wrong impression in the mind of the child about sex from the beginning. You can use humour as a tool to overcome your discomfort while talking. Moreover, this will also help your child to open up easily.

3. Don’t project sex as a bad thing

It is very important to convey the idea to your children that sex is not an act of sin, but it is regarded as a sin only when misused, like rape or sexual abuse. Encourage them to accept the fact that the occurrence of changes in their body with the onset of puberty is completely normal. Also convey that these changes are a positive way of making them a complete human being.

4. Teach your children the importance of sexual purity

Enrich your children with values like loyalty, respect and love. Teach them the importance of remaining faithful to their partner and treating their partner with love and care. Motivate them to resist peer pressure and not to embrace infidelity.

5. Set healthy boundaries

Set boundaries for your children carefully and make them understand why you did so. For example, convey that their modesty should be reflected from their appearance and behaviour because that is the best they can do to respect their own bodies. Moreover, put specific guidelines on what type of media your child is allowed to watch and tell him/her that it is a way to respect and let his/her thoughts grow. Gradually, when your children start showing mature reactions to these guidelines, allow them to make their own choices and give them more personal space.

'Consult'.

Mouth breathing in children is very common and while a kid with open mouth might seem cute, it is not always the case. The parents need to be made aware that a child breathing through the mouth all the time is not normal and it is high time they find a way to manage it.

A little understanding of the effects of the mouth breathing habit on the child's health in general and oral health in particular can be an eye-opener for the parent. For an educated person, there are obvious symptoms, which indicate that the child is a mouth-breather.

These symptoms include:

1. Dryness of the lips
2. Crowding of the front teeth
3. Snoring
4. Sleeping with the mouth open
5. Recurrent infections of the airways including sinusitis and middle ear infections
6. Bad breath

Common causes include:

1. Chronic nasal obstruction/congestion because of which the child is not able to get enough oxygen through the nose.
2. Enlarged tonsils or adenoids
3. Thumb or finger-sucking habit
4. Recurrent respiratory infections

Effects of mouth breathing on oral health:

Mouth breathing may seem like a harmless habit, but has serious effects on the oral and dental health of the child. Some of them are discussed below.

1. Dry mouth: A constantly open mouth can lead to drying up of the saliva. This in turn leads to reduced effects of saliva including the flushing effect on the bacteria and the food deposits. This leads to increased chances of tooth decay and gum diseases.
2. Tooth decay: With reduced saliva, the pH remains acidic for a longer period of time, leading to increased chances of tooth decay.
3. Gum diseases: Reduced amounts of saliva also leads to increased gum disease and periodontal disease as the bacteria are not removed and have a conducive environment to act upon.
4. Facial development: A mouth breathing child maintains a different posture than a nose breather. This leads to a narrow and long face, flattened nose, smaller nostrils, reduced facial tone, thin upper lip, pouty upper lip, and a small lower jaw.
5. Speech: An open mouth causes the tongue to thrust into the palate when talking. This leads to altered pronunciation of some sounds; especially and can cause lisping.
6. Braces: Mouth breathing causes multiple challenges including prolonged treatment period, inability to close the gaps, reduced stability of the realigned teeth, and increased chances of relapse. The added complication of increased gum disease and tooth decay makes it worse. The habit needs to be corrected first before going in for braces.

If that sounds like a long list, they are not all inclusive. Early intervention in the habit can correct and negate all these effects. Talk to your dentist to know how to help your mouth breathing child.