Kailyn Lowry has some advice for parents: Teach your sons about periods. The Teen Mom alum has seven children, and luckily, she has four older kids who know about menstruation. In a video shared on TikTok, the podcaster, 32, explained that she recently got her period unexpectedly while on vacation.
Kailyn said she has polycystic ovary syndrome and irregular periods. She also added that she is "an extremely heavy bleeder." Because of all of these factors, she explained, she doesn't really know when her period will come — but because her sons are informed about periods, they're able to help her out if needed.
Kailyn traveled with four of her sons for spring break: Creed, 3, Lux, 6, Lincoln, 10, and Isaac, 14. Her youngest kids — Rio, 15 months, and infant twins Verse and Valley — did not travel with them.
Traveling alone with four kids is already a lot, but Kailyn also unexpectedly got her period during the trip. "Normally I wouldn't freak out about this," she explained in her video. "But I have four of my boys with me by myself."
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"Thankfully they know what to look for if I were to have a little aunt flow emergency," she continued.
She captioned the video with "teach boys" because the fact that her sons know about periods saved her from a potentially uncomfortable moment on her trip.
"Isaac or Lincoln could go to the store for me and grab something," she explained.
Since she knows she has irregular periods, she was prepared this time — but she also knows that her eldest son would be able to help her out if they were "out and about."
"I would have no shame asking my oldest son to check me because sometimes you just don't know if you leak through things," she said.
Many TikTokers applauded Kailyn for educating her sons about periods.
One person who responded to the video wrote: "This!!! not to mention they grow into men who are thoughtful bf/husbands even just friends."
Some moms agreed that we need to do more to decrease the stigma.
"I made my son go in to the store to pick up the tampons I ordered online," one woman wrote. "No son of mine will be grossed out by periods – period."
"Let's normalize periods people," another commenter on TikTok chimed in.