Healthy Chats – The Birds & Bees Part 1

Parents are very comfortable talking about health issues yet they’re very reluctant to have to introduce the topic about the birds and the bees. I know. I myself struggled with my own children. I even struggled with the patients in my own practice. My name is Dr. de Freitas. I am a pediatrician and created Healthy Chats. After so many years of practicing medicine, it constantly amazes me how difficult and how sensitive the topic of talking to our children about sex is. After so many years of practicing, I’ve put together a very simple straightforward way in which we can talk to young children from ages five and six about the very concepts about the birds and the bees. So basically three basic questions. Where do babies come from? How do they get out? How do they get in?

Where do babies come from? This is probably the most dreaded questions that many parents face. Our first thoughts are that they’re asking about sex or that you’re going to have to explain intercourse, teen pregnancy, venereal diseases and AIDS. All of those thoughts overwhelm us but hang in there. Don’t despair. Young children, ages four, five and six, although curious about their origins, are not asking about sex. For young children, they want to know more than anything is a place. They have a very concrete way of thinking. For example, if they want a teacher, they go to school. If they want bread, they go to the grocery store and pick up the bread. If they want a baby, they go to the hospital and pick up the baby. One way to address this topic is to very concretely say babies come from a very special place inside the mother’s body called the uterus. It is like a nest that all women have. It is a place where her baby will grow later on in life if she chooses to have a child. That’s it. Two to three questions.
Very simple. Very concrete. Most young children will be very comfortable and satisfied with this response.
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Founder of Healthy Chats, Dr. Chrystal de Freitas is a pediatrician, author and mother of three children who has a special interest in health education. She completed her pediatric training at the University of Washington, in Seattle, WA, and has been in private practice for 22 years. She practiced with North County Health Services in Encinitas, for 6 years. In 2004, Dr. de Freitas opened her solo private practice of pediatrics, Carmel Valley Pediatrics in San Diego, CA.