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Unregistered 09:08 PM 10-18-2012
Thanks for the replies.

I was upstairs with the infants and fulling out paperwork when it first started but my assistant redirected her, as she normally does, and instead of the young woman stopping it escalated. How and why, I can't lie and say exactly, but when I heard the commotion on the monitor I came downstairs and helped her de-escalate the her. Having a child touch themselves when falling asleep is not something new, but normally redirection or a gentle reminder that we do that in private is enough to stop the act. More often than not, I think the kids aren't even fully aware they are doing it so we would NEVER make a big deal out of it because on a rudimentary level, it's normal. I've had kids in the past who do not have a history that used that method to comfort themselves. Nothing more than a gentle coaxing has ever been needed.

She was absolutely line of sight during the incident. My assistant asked her to stop, reminded her, redirected her. She stopped momentarily, started again. Stopped when told she would be moved into the other room, started doing it more vigorously. Assistant moved to get her mat up to move her into a more private corner, she pulled down her pants and escalated her behavior. I don't know that it was 3-4 minutes, but that's what I was told and I believe her; it sounds reasonable.

I did talk to mom and she was OK with the situation. The little boy wanted to know why "J" was different and doing that; mom actually thought the little girl had a rash or something and was concerned in that respect as a physician assistant. The email is a great idea, but again, I was advised against it so I didn't know how to proceed in that respect. As I mentioned earlier, I normally would've addressed the incident immediately with parents but I had never had this type of situation happen where I am expressly asked not to. I did send out an email this evening that painted a broad scope picture but only one parent responded and she just felt bad for me. I'm OK. It turned out OK. Thank you all for your input, again!
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