This one was easy for me. when our daughter git old enough about 11 we explained in very clinical terms what was happening... a few weeks later she got her first period. theer was nopanic, no hiding of anything it was as if she had it before.
we got her tampons and napkins thent ook her out for " period" clothes, funky foods and let her have her week.

it was all so calm.. how do you think you will handle it.
When i was 9 the doctor gave me an injection in my hiip and said uh oh.. and my mom panicked. then he told her in a few weeks I am going to get my period and my parenst had gotten me all the supplies to keep on hand.and a few days before my 10th birthday there its was.

julie

My Mum bought me a book called 'Have You Started Yet' and also a supply of things I might need so that I knew what to do. I was absolutely petrified and hated the idea that it might be painful and messy.

I actually started during my exams in my first year of secondary school. I tried not tell to anyone as I didn't want it to have happened but my Mum noticed the washing and told everyone how I was now a 'young lady'. I felt really embarrassed and didn't want anyone to know. I felt like everyone could tell and I didn't have any friends at school to talk to about it and I just wanted the whole thing to go away.

When I was young and had my first menstruation, I was living with my father because my parents were separated, so I did not have a mother around to explain to me about what was happening to my body. However, my dad did not make this little detail keep me from being educated about my menstrual cycle, and so he did his best and brought me to meet one of his colleagues, a very close friend of his and someone he has worked with for years. She was a married woman with six kids, some grown up and some not, and my father let her have a talk with me about my first menstruation and what to expect now that I'm already a "lady".

I realize now that it was very sweet of my father to try and make up for the absence of my mother, but at that time I just really wanted to die. I was so embarrassed at the woman for having that kind of talk with me, and I was also very nervous and just kept nodding in agreement, secretly hoping for the talk to end. I felt very uncomfortable about having that talk with someone who was not family and almost a stranger to me.

So, anyway, I think that just simply being there for your child is going to help a lot already even if no talk has been provided yet. It is important that she talks about it with someone she is comfortable with, and if it can't be her mother you have to think of someone who you think she won't get embarrassed with.

I don't really know what to say, but I would probably just tell her the basics, that it will come once a month, I will teach her how to dispose of the pads / tampons, and all in all just guide her through it until she is well adjusted with the routine.