It would not be wrong to say that masturbation
might be seen in babyhood because sexuality exists in every developmental
stage. Attention of the genital area
begins in the early ages, especially for boys. When babies’ diapers are changed,
they rub their feet against each other. When children are older, they touch their genital areas. Babies are too sensitive towards touching
because of their skin being very sensitive.
The
childhood masturbation is very common. This situation is more explicit between
3-6 ages. When girls masturbate, they
clamp their legs or give pressure towards their vagina.
When boys masturbate, they lie on their stomach to rub against their
sexual organ or to touch their sexual organ sequently. The interest in sexual organ is a healthy
development. If the masturbation is not
excessive and repetitive, there is no abnormal case to be worried about.
What
are the reasons of the masturbation? Let’s
go back to babyhood, the babies, who lack of breastfeeding or soothing, live
deficiency of stimulation so they look for other ways to get themselves
sexually satisfied. The other reasons might be divorce ( living with single
parent), changing the caretaker, the birth of new sibling and some traumatic events and sexual abuse which
could trigger the masturbation. Also, narrow
clothes and underwear can lead to pleasure in children. Emotional deprivation, genital tract infection
and minority environmental stimulation also might encourage children to touch
their bodies.
Things
to do towards this situation, are the parents showing much more interest in and
spending some quality time with their children.
They should not focus on masturbation and should not make verbal
warning. They should immediately do activities that would distract children
from masturbating. While hugging children, parents should pay attention not to
touch or not to stimulate genital area of children accidentally. When the
children are alone, there should be kind of toys to play games with and keep
themselves occupied with. To enhance
environmental stimuli, it may be useful to send children to nursery or
kindergarten. Punishing, reproving or shaming children is not a suitable way
that you should definitely avoid doing so.
