Is a Four Year Old Ready to Know?

C.:

There are many wonderful (age appropriate) books out there, for young (curious) children. If she is asking, she is probably ready to know. You will not "scar" a child, and it is not a shameful thing, by any means. It is always important to keep the doors open for communication. Private parts, where babies come from...are all natural things. Pick up a book, and use it as a teaching moment. You can also teach her morals such as, "only mommy and daddy's who love each other, make babies"...you get the point. Sex should not be a taboo subject. Good luck and relax...

A. L
www.kids-incorporated.com

Hi, C.. I would continue giving her small details without giving the entire story. She may choose to share this information with other children whose parents may not want them to know all the details yet. Telling her the doctor at the hospital helps take the baby out is good information and you might try and bring up other things the doctor does while babies are in the hospital, bringing the focus off of the how the baby comes out and turning it into what happens after the baby comes out. Good Luck!

Before I got pregnant our 4 year old son asked how it all works since you can't just buy a baby at the store. We found a book at Books a Million called "What to Expect When Mommy is Having a Baby". It explains it all in good, broad terms for that age. We were happy with how it was explained and it was enough information to satisfy his curiousity for now. Every now and then he'll ask a question and I answer it with an age appropriate answer, but I never lie or fudge the truth at all. I highly recommend the book we used.

our child was not scared about talking about the uterus (most of our family has science degrees and would abhor someone calling it the stomach, which is not true) and we even looked at pictures of that, cutaways that show it, and she was not scared when we talked about the baby coming out between your legs. once we talked about that, and how the baby grew bigger because the uterus is like a balloon that was all she wanted to know. I don't think discussing this matter of fact, keeping simple and using analogies is a bad thing. also guess what? she asks about why and how people die. so we have been talking about that too. no nightmares.