Do little girls NEED panties? - Page 2

[Terpatude]

Both DD and I go commando most of the time..She is 11 and has never really liked the feel of undies..she is capable of cleaning herself well and she will wear them if she wears a dress. I hate them...

[Marlet]

I forfeited undies a few years ago. It didn't matter how I washed them they irritated me a lot and I hated the feeling of them. Doesn't matter if theya re the right size or the wrong size they cut into my sides and left marks in my skin that I wasn't comfortable with. DH loves it!!!! When we met this last summer he about had a heart attack when he felt the lack of undies there. :

I suppose when it comes time to deal with it I'll let my daughter decide for herself. If she feels better without them than so be it.

[Greaseball]

I wouldn't worry too much about perverts as a reason for underwear. If there are perverts around, putting your dd in underwear will not make her safe. It's not like the lack of underwear will make her more unsafe.

As for the hospital, I guess there are some people who leave the hospital all embarrassed about their underwear, but I'm not one of them.

[jannan]

i think little girls should wear underwear.. it is just the proper thing to do. one time in was at the park and these two little girls were running around , jumping ...their skirts flying up ........and they had no underwear on! do i , or anyone else need to see their vulvas? no, so put underwear on.. i bet child molesters would love that.


please , put under wear on your daughters.....

[sphinx]

yes. I think they need something covering their orifices (baby boxers are fine!). My perspective is mainly hygiene. I have a big sheepdog who sheds and wood floors that are always dusty no matter what I do. If my 5 year old dd sat around on the floor naked I shudder to think what we'd find at bathtime. She's not the best at wiping either. Also, I worry about her possibly hurting herself, getting cut by a microscopic shard of glass or a random bead finding its way in there or something. Third, I think the modesty aspect is also important in terms of keeping her safe from unwanted sexual attention. However if she was getting yeast infections from wetness as one pp mentioned, I would be sure to help her stay dry, make plenty of airing time, and have her change panties often.

[Mallory]

I agree that probably little girls out in public in skirts or dresses need something on underneath (shorts or panties or tights-something), but we don't wear underware much around here, although I just have boys now I wouldn't make a girl wear panties either, I don't.

[Autumnschild]

My 3yo dd likes to wear panties under clothes, unless they ride up (usually from being put on backward) She gets upset if I put pants on her without panties.

I have a hard time keeping any clothes on her at all while we're at home. I don't have a problem with nudity, just that she is preoccupied with certain body parts when they aren't covered...and I can tell it makes dh uncomfortable, which makes me uncomfortable. I try to pick out cute panties that she'll want to wear around the house.

I would definitely make her wear them with dresses to prevent flashing. I'm afraid of the pervs. But if she insisted on not wearing them with pants, what can I say? I go commando often and would be a hypocrite to tell her she couldn't!

Originally Posted by myrrhmaid

:LOL this made me laugh! when we were kids-if we said *so* my mom would say-'sew buttons on your underwear, zippers are out of style'.

Dh says this to me every time I say "so"...drives me nuts!

[moondiapers]

I guess it depends on how often you wash pants. Unless they fall in the mud my kids get two days wear out of a pair of jeans before they are washed, I do the same thing. If you aren't wearing panties then your pants become your panties. Also, think about NOT donating your used pants to other people or stores if you don't use undies. In dresses I wouldn't make my child wear undies in the house IF the dress was long enough that she didn't have her bare bottom on the furniture, thus making the furniture become her underwear. Girls and women have vaginal secretions. I have kids in my house all of the time, what if they to drop a cracker on on the couch and then pick it up and eat it? It would be really gross if bare vulvas regularlly occupied that surface. We're a nudie family too, lol. But in the evenings when we're hanging out nekkid (as dh calls it) we put beach towels over the seats of the couches.

-Heather

[moondiapers]

On a side note: My children hardly ever wear underwear to bed, they just wear pjs. The other day my son accidentally zipped his penis up in his sleeper. He now chooses to wear boxers under his pajamas.


-Heather

[charmarty]

Originally Posted by jannan

i think little girls should wear underwear.. it is just the proper thing to do. one time in was at the park and these two little girls were running around , jumping ...their skirts flying up ........and they had no underwear on! do i , or anyone else need to see their vulvas? no, so put underwear on.. i bet child molesters would love that.


please , put under wear on your daughters.....

NIce friggin comment Janan! Geeze!!!!! Boy oh boy.... you take the cake!

[charmarty]

Underwear is not an issue in our house. If they want to wear them, they wear them. If they don't then they don't. We have not come across the issue of skirts and such yet. My kids arent all that into dresses. They are much like thier mom was!

Personally for me, I wear undies when I need to, an don't when I don't KWIM? Commando is DEFinately my first choice. I like to let my Yoni BREATH!

[lauraess]

Originally Posted by levar

One reason for girls, ladies, women to wear an "under-garment" is that you CAN wash undies in HOT water and dry them in HOT air to kill the bacteria that builds up. Cool water and cool dry (that you would use with, for example, demim pants) DO NOT kill the bacteria, for example, that causes yeast infection (in vagina as well as anus, same meds etc) and can lead to UTIs as well as other things. FYI this holds true for socks too since "Athletes Foot" is pretty much a yeast infection of the foot. Same meds are used, etc. And of course this goes for boys too since they can get the same infections.

Personally, I would also incourage children to use underwear to keep poop-stains and pee-stains from garments. Children are not 100% about wiping from the day they use the toilet... And washing pants in HOT water and air really "takes the life out of them" faster than I can personally afford.

-It is my understanding that not wearing undies for many women has been helpful in controlling yeast. As far as Uti's this may be different, i can see your point with sanitary measures- although we've been pantifree for sometime and not once a problem.
~L

[momea]

in a word - pinworms

where i'm from if you sit in the dirt with nothin' on you'll be scratching in the night pretty soon after!

[moondiapers]

Originally Posted by momea

in a word - pinworms

where i'm from if you sit in the dirt with nothin' on you'll be scratching in the night pretty soon after!

And then if you hang out nekkid in your house you're whole family and everyone that visits will be exposed to pinworms and probably catch them....

[farmer mama]

Originally Posted by momea

in a word - pinworms

where i'm from if you sit in the dirt with nothin' on you'll be scratching in the night pretty soon after!

WARNING: TALKING ABOUT WORMS

What? Pinworms live in the intestine and are spread via eggs through human to human contact (eggs laid around anus, and another person has to injest these eggs, strangely this happens very easily). I have never heard of getting them through soil. Pinworms and other worms have to be ingested, except for a few like hookworm which is usually gotten while barefoot (don't panic, it is usually in tropical environments), as you get it through the skin.

Anyhow, I am a fan of letting our bodies breathe, and we have never had any problems with UTIs.

[liawbh]

Yes they are usually caught by ingesting, but they can get on fingers from a number of places. From KidsHealth

Contaminated fingers can carry pinworm eggs to many different surfaces, including: bed linens, towels, clothing (especially underwear and pajamas), toilets and bathroom fixtures, drinking glasses and eating utensils, toys, sandboxes, and food. Pinworm eggs are able to live on a surface for 2 to 3 weeks.

Also, there are a couple other ways to get them. From Dr Greene

Occasionally the story goes a little differently. Sometimes a child can inhale airborne eggs and become infected that way. Every now and then the eggs will hatch on the skin of the buttocks, and the immature larvae will crawl back through the anus, up into the rectum and eventually arrive in the colon. Also, the eggs can hatch on the skin of girls and the larvae crawl into the vagina instead of the rectum. This happens in up to 20% of girls with pinworms (Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics, Saunders 1996). The vaginal pinworms usually die out with no outside help.

[FullCream]

If I'm wearing a skirt or a dress, or trousers that will be washed after that wear, I go commando. I never wear undies to bed (used to for AF, but don't have to worry about that since the hysterectomy), even as a child (and I'm pretty sure that mum never did/has either). DD always wears undies during the day. Never at night.

Since I stopped wearing undies every day (in conjunction with some dietary modifications), I've stopped getting yeast infections

Whatever is comfortable for the child in my book.

[cool_mom]

Let's not forget that if a girl wears pants but no panties, then she might reveal a little "plumber's crack" when she sits down (LOL)

[lauraess]

A little plumber's crack :
figure you're kiddin' cool_mom but anyway, Im thinkin when they're wearing the liitle jeans w/o their panties we should make sure they dont sit down :nana:
~L

[myjulybabes]

I have the opposite problem. Dd won't go without panties for anything. I'd really rather she slept without them at least. Like FullCream, I've found sleeping without underwear really cuts down on yeast infections. And in the "very minor problem, but slightly annoying anyway" category, she always ends up with her underwear hanging out her leotard at gymnastics. (the leo isn't cut THAT high, she just prefers to wear her panties a size too big). Do you suppose there's any good way to encourage her to go commando occasionally?

Now, back to the main question-- I think if the child isn't ending up with irritation from the fabric of their pants (I simply cannot go commando in jeans.......OUCH!) and not flashing the world, it's not a big deal to not wear underwear. I generally wash our underwear in warm water, not hot, and have not had any issues with infection or irritation, so I don't see why that would happen with the pants I also wash in warm water. If you really want them to wear underwear, maybe try buying them in a bigger size so they are nice and roomy, or maybe try boxers or the "boyshorts" style panties.