neednewtechnique
New Member
Okay, I guess we discussed this issue on here once before and I appreciate all the feedback and support I received about this very sensitive and pretty disgusting behavior that our difficult child has been exhibiting. The problem is, now it has escalated....she has decided that the dead skin on the side of her feet isn't enough for her, so she is now sticking them through the skin on her thigh. Right in front, about 2 inches above her knee. She has all sorts of poke marks from putting them in, and some of them have become cuts from her sticking them through her skin and then yanking them out. I tried to have a conversation with her about this behavior since it has started to get worse and look more like self-mutliating behavior that is unaccepatble. She tells me that she does it for fun and that it doesn't hurt. I have a hard time believing that this is true, but why would a kid think that this kind of thing is okay?? I made her give me her safety pins, but being as though they are such small objects, there is a good possibility she has some hidden somplace that I missed. If I suspect this is true and I suspect that she could be doing this in more discreet places, is it innapropriate for me to make her let me check her skin after a shower, like the upper part of her inner thigh and above her pubic bone, and the other places they caution parents of a cutter to be aware of?? Being that I am step-mother, this is a bit uncomfortable for me since she is 12 and I didn't take care of her at all as a little kid...and it isn't like her DAD could do it...so I guess I need to know if it is appropriate, but also if you all think that it would be necessary...I am afraid that she could get an infection, and unlike a normal cut, if she gets infection in one of the ones she DOESN'T pull out, then we are looking at infection UNDER the skin, not on the surface of a cut like a normal cutter might get... the safety pins simply ARE NOT clean, and I am afraid she could make herself sick.