Toddler Self-Exploration
Posted by cassie on Friday, 7 March, 2008 @ 8:23 pm
I’ve recently had the delight of Anthony learning that his pee-pee is something altogether fun to play with. I understand self-exploration comes with the age but it is rather embarrassing, in a funny sort of way, to have him walking around with his hand in his pants ala Al Bundy. I’m trying to teach him if he wants to further his knowledge to do it in his room and not out where everyone else has to see. But so far that seems to not be working. Instead he gets mad at me when I tell him to “get his hand out of his pants”. LOL
It’s also led to some leaky diapers overnight since the diaper is no longer in the perfect positioning anymore to do it’s job. Which ok fine - call me anal or whatever but changing his sheets and pjs every day because they smell like pee isn’t all that fun. I’m trying a onesie on him tonight with his pj bottoms to see if that solves that particular problem.
I did a quick search on Google to see what is suggested for parents to do or not do and this article (an excerpt is below) came up. After reading it, I find it reassuring that my thoughts on Anthony’s “toddler self-exploration” are on par with at least the Drs.
I did wonder if, perhaps, he does have a yeast infection since he is not circumcised and will keep an eye on it; I’ll call the ped’s office next week just to reassure myself. In the meantime I guess I’ll do a search for that online too 
“Most children begin to explore their genitals at about the same time they begin to look more like little boys and girls than like babies. Just when we are beginning to adjust to their not being babies anymore, we are confronted with the sight of our little boy fondling his erection or our little girl moving her hips up and down on top of her pillow with a glazed look in her eyes. How jarring!
…If we take a step back, though, we can see that it makes sense that kids would want to explore their own bodies. When toilet learning becomes a focus of interest, we might anticipate that kids would also be curious about those parts of the body that have in the past been largely hidden under the diapers. Boys will play with their penises. Girls will finger their vaginas, and even insert objects. Many kids will reach down every chance they get. This exploration produces pleasurable feelings, as we are well aware.”