Kid quizzes US mum about the purpose of maxi pads

If there’s one conversation that’s more awkward than discussing the birds and the bees, it’s explaining the purpose of personal sanitary napkins - as this Philadelphia mum recently discovered.

A video of the embarrassing but highly amusing encounter was posted to the Facebook page of Ebony Clark on October 12, and has since been viewed more than 6.7 million times.

It shows a young boy in a supermarket’s feminine hygiene aisle holding up a jumbo pack of maxi pads while his mother films from behind the shopping trolley.

“Don’t you use these for your butt?” the boy can be heard asking.

He repeats the question several times before his mother tells him to put the pack back on the shelf.

The boy then delivers a rambling account of how he first saw his mother using the pads, concluding with “So you still want a pack of them?”

Ms Clark’s amusement quickly evaporates.

“Put them back!” she snaps.