I am a director of a child care center. We have a 3 year old girl who masturbates everyday at nap time for 1.5 to 2 hours. She does it so hard that her hair becomes wet, she breathes hard and makes noises. Her arms and hands become red and stay red for awhile after the nap time is over. She is even starting to do it at other times during the day. The parents have told the teachers to ignore it which we have done. However, we feel it is not normal for her to be doing it for so long a time and at other times when the other children may be watching. Also she has been doing this since she was 1 year old, but it has become a progressively longer period of time. Please let me know what you think we should do. Recently she has had a vaginal irritation and a staff infection.
Dear parent, I understand your concerns, but this is not normal. Severe itching may cause a child to take the habit of rubbing her private part that hard. Severe itching may be caused by fungal, bacterial infection or parasitic worms of the gastrointestinal tract. I strongly recommend a stool analysis and a swab culture from her private parts. If they came back negative then she will need a pediatric psychiatric.