Infant-infant sexual encounters are fairly uncommon, partly because of the infant's lack of mobility, of course. However, the older infant who is one or two years of age and old enough to crawl or walk is capable of initiating encounters of various kinds. It was reported of Louis XIII's carefully observed permissive infancy, for instance, that "he throws down little Marguerite, kisses her, throws himself on her..." (As reported in Hunt, 1970, p. 167). The Israeli kibbutz is one setting which allows for intimate encounters. (Kaffman, 1972).
The kevutza is a bi-sexual children's peer group that inhabits common living
and sleeping quarters-boys and girls who are one through five
years of age sleep in the same room, shower together, go to the toilet
together, and often run around nude together before getting dressed in
the morning or after being undressed in the evening. Intimate encounters
occur and include a number of different kinds of activity.
In a group of children with a mean age of two years, it was found that the
most frequent expression consisted in a simple embrace of one child by
another, followed in frequency by stroking or caressing, kissing, and
touching the genitals. (Spiro, 1958, p. 221). In some previously unpublished
data, Kinsey records instances of cuddling and kissing encounters
between infants two years of age or less.
Infant Encounters With Children and Adolescents
Infant encounters with children (3-7 years of age) do occur, but
generally speaking, they have not been systematically observed or if
observed they have not been recorded. Kinsey observed, in some of his
unpublished interviews, that embracing and kissing among young siblings
is much in evidence. It is reasonable to speculate that cases
such as the following, and other types of contact, are not uncommon in
unsupervised intimate play of infants and children within the family.
Survey data on the infant's sexual encounters with preadolescents
and adolescents is also extremely sparse, though isolated cases are
frequently reported in the psychoanalytic literature.
This should not be taken to imply that such encounters do not occur among infants and
children not referred for treatment. For example, in a recent survey of
a large, self-selected United States sample of adults, approximately
three hundred (one percent of the females and two percent of the males)
reported that they had had their first sexual intercourse with a relative.
(Athanasiou, Shaver, and Tavis, 1970). If this is true of coitus,
intimacy among young siblings, short of incest, can be assumed to
be much more prevalent. No researcher has systematically studied such
encounters, however, and in a sexually repressive society, adolescents
and preadolescents are careful not to be caught in such play, as in the
following case of a twelve year old girl and her baby brother. The second
case is similar in that the approach to an infant girl of about one
and one-half years old by the boy that is baby-sitting her is cautious
and apprehensive.
Not until I was in sixth grade (age 12) did I
have my first experience with the opposite sex.
It was at that time that my first and only
brother was born and I saw a male penis for the
first time. I was amazed by it and wanted to
touch it. I was afraid though, and thought it
was something dirty so I tried not to touch his
penis even when changing his diapers.
When the baby was almost asleep I went into her
room and walked up to the crib. I pulled a large
erection out of my pants and showed it to the
small girl. I asked her what it was and she
said, "pee-pee." I then proceeded to take her
hand and made her grab it and this excited me
more. Then I remembered what had happened once
before when I was caught and decided that was
enough. I thought, what if she somehow tells her
mother about a "pee-pee?" This thought ended my
experience with this girl.