Our daughter, O, is 10 years old, but she is developmentally delayed. Which means she functions at about a 4 to 5 year old level socially, and probably lower than that academically. She is mildly mentally retarded and has severe ADHD. She is a handfull, but an extremely loving child and I wouldn't change things even if I could.
I don't want to get into everything with her, you will hear more stories about her as I blog on, I am sure, but there is something that is eating me alive. She is 10 1/2...which means puberty is not far away. How do you explain to essentially a 4 year old that she is going to get her period? How do you explain that she will need to get a pelvic exam? What kind of doctor do you take her to? Do you put her on the depo shot so that she won't have a period? She is not capable of deciding her sexual path in life. What is the easiest course? I want to protect her as well as I can - I am her mother. What if she is taken advantage of - and is raped, but isn't protected? She couldn't raise a baby - and I don't know that I could put her through an abortion or do the abortion anyway! Do I just put her on a birth control regimen to be safe? I realize this is still maybe a couple of years away, but I keep telling myself I would cross that bridge when it came, but I think the bridge is getting closer. I can SEE it and that scares the hell out of me. I can't seem to find any support groups for this thing, although I know there are other parents who have had to go through it. So, hopefully someone will read this blog and help me out. This is my cry for help!!
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Hi Jenna this is B's wife Regina...all is well with us... I was reading your blog about your daughter...first of all with the adhd...there are natural ways to deal with that without meds...monitor and manage her diet...I'll get some info and give it to you...Also I'm a believer so I believe much prayer is necessary...teach her about God...I think I remember Bisherie saying he went to church with you before...even tho she is delayed at that age if you teach her about God and what he expects of us it'll sink in...Work on those things first before thinking about the periods and pelvic exams...I hope this in some way helped..because we have a 12yr old and 6 yr old and although they are both mentally healthy it's still a challenging world out there and we must always teach them....
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