I started my periods at age 10 and all my girls (I have 3) were around the same age.
Dont hide things like pads and tampons and when your daughter asks what they are then its time to explain. Just be matter of fact and answer questions honestly.

When she turned 9 we had the talk. She has Kaz Cookes girl stuff book to learn the basics and she has a couple of pads in her bag for emergencies.

I highly recommend Amazejnr.org it is a website which uses child friendly animations specific to primary and high school aged children. You can select the age bracket and the topic you want discussed. My hubby had THE TALK with our boys aged 8 & 9 and they handled it really well. My hubby choose to show them the talk on periods and both of my boys are now very respectful of when mummy needs private time.

I have this question too. My eldest turns 5 this year and despite closing 2 doors to stop my kids coming into the bathroom, it is often ignored. I had to explain recently that a pad isn’t a diaper, and the blood doesn’t mean I’m sick. I tried to tell her when she is older like Mummy, this is normal and ok. But I dread having to explain about tampons, and not shoving things up there.

About 9 or 10 seems to be the time these days for the talk. Your daughter’s peers in school may get it at that age so it’s possible she may ask about it too. Rather be ready for it so she knows what’s going on.

I think I had the chat when my eldest was around 8 or 9 years old so my youngest would have been around 7 or so and ofcourse she wanted to know so I had no issues in explaining the puberty thing to them in a simple way.

I think it depends on the child too and what they can handle. Mine are quite mature and are not embarrassed to ask questions either if they have any. I have a friend who has a daughter that is 9 years old too and she is sensitive and quite immature and doesn’t want to know she tries to avoid it and doesn’t want to talk about anything like that.

I had the talk with my daughter when she was in Year 4 as one of her friends got her periods (not that my daughter knew) and I would have been mortified if it happened to her and she wasn’t prepared. I just told her its something that all girls/women go through monthly. I didn’t go into too much information as to why we get them (didn’t want her to freak out about having a baby) just said it was her body getting ready to become a young lady/woman and showed her how to use a pad. We made a pack for her to leave in the bottom of her school bag with a couple of pads, spare undies and a zip lock bag for soiled undies. All the mums of girls in her group did the same and we told them that their friends had the same so “should you need it, you could ask your friends for help” or go see the ladies in the office

books are the best way to convey message

When you give her the talk I strongly suggest you tell her the brands of them.
When I was in primary school one of our teachers told us if we ever needed one and didn’t have any to see her as she kept spare ones. She mentioned one brand which I had never heard of so I had no idea what she was talking about. My Mum had talked to me about Periods but never mentioned brand names at all.

I had the talk with my daughter when I noticed blood in her undies and asked about it. I was taken by surprise though, she was only 10 and I was totally unexpected

There are lots of age appropriate books and resources on menstruation that may be useful. There are online resources and sites too that may be useful in obtaining resources on menstruation. It is worth having a look and finding resources and information that will suit your child. This discussion is good in the primary years and knowledge is good and should not be scary when age appropriate. Companies that produce sanitary pads and tampons often give out samples and have online resources too.

I remember telling my daughter that she already has eggs in her tummy that potentially can become babies at 5yr of age or so. Then step by step I told a bit more about the eggs over the years, how her body would be ready every months to potentially get pregnant and a baby and when not the egg would leave her body with a bit of blood. By keeping the conversation open and simple it was absolutely easy and my daughter was super excited when she started her period.

I was 11 when I got mine and my mum hadn’t given me the talk and I freaked out. I would say around 9/10 is the best age. I helped explain it to my niece at 9.

There’s a book series you can get online called secret girls business it has cartoon pictures and easy to understand I have 2 daughters with Autism in their teens and I homeschool one I got my period at 10 so I taught my daughter when she was 11 just in case.

am loving the ‘girls stuff’ books I think Kaz cooke writes them.

it seems to be happening earlier these days. i’m thinking when my daughter is 9/10 – depends on her maturity too