Infantile masturbation - exclusion of severe diagnosis does not exclude parental distress - case report.

Masturbation is a quite common human behavior which occurs in 90-94% of males and 50-60% of females at a certain point in their lives (Leung & Robson 1993). Masturbation behavior is easily recognizable and in classical form it should not be diagnostically problematic. However, in early childhood it is not often recognizable because there is no genital manipulation (Bradley 1985, Leung & Robson 1993). In such cases health professionals are less familiar with different kinds of manifestations of this behavior. Regarding these circumstances it is obvious that infantile masturbation could be the cause of diagnostic issues. We report a case where “diagnosis” is established but still there were etiological questions and a need for some kind of intervention because of parental distress.