8 Year old Developing?

Question

A friend of our family mentioned that her 8 year old daughter is already "budding" and growing pubic hair.

Are children really developing earlier and earlier with every generation?

Is it something in the water, steroids in the meat, or all the fat and chemicals in french fries?

Answer 1

More young girls are showing signs of puberty as early as 7 or 8 and beginning to menstruate two to three years later. As a result, parents are increasingly faced with the difficult task of talking to young children about topics that had traditionally been reserved for preteens and teens.

While previous studies have found that girls typically began showing signs of puberty at 10 to 11, a new report by the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society (LWPES), a nationwide network of physicians headquartered in Stanford, California, suggests that it is normal for white girls as young as 7 and black girls as young as 6 to start developing breasts. This conclusion was based on a study of 17,000 girls between the ages of 3 and 12 conducted by the Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) network of 1,500 pediatricians nationwide and published in the April 1997 issue of "Pediatrics."

"This study is significant because it gives us a marker for when parents should be concerned about physical development that is truly too early and may be a sign of a hormonal imbalance," says Paul Boepple, M.D., associate professor of pediatric endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and at Harvard Medical School. "It also gives parents a heads-up that they need to talk about the physical and emotional changes of puberty with kids possibly as young as age 5."


Why is the age of puberty dropping?

Nobody knows for certain why girls are entering puberty earlier, but the most popular theory involves insecticides, which can break down into compounds that may have estrogenic activity in young girls, thus triggering the onset of puberty.

Others attribute the drop to in increase in childhood obesity. "My own bias is that a major contributor to earlier puberty is the increasing prevalence of obesity over the past 25 years ... especially in 6- to 11-year-old girls," says Paul Kaplowitz, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Virginia, and author of the LWPES report. "It has long been known that overweight girls tend to mature earlier and thin girls tend to mature later."

As for African-American girls maturing even earlier, Boepple believes this may be due to a higher cultural tendency toward obesity, while Kaplowitz hypothesizes that there may be genetic differences within the African-American population that predispose them to an earlier onset.

If a child is showing early signs of puberty, an evaluation by an endocrinologist is recommended to rule out other risks. "In a few cases, early puberty can be indicative of a tumor of the reproductive organs or that the brain has erroneously triggered the production of estrogen," says Boepple. "The great majority of girls are just developing early. But if a girl has unusual symptoms including headaches, abdominal pain, and weight loss, or if there isn't the growth spurt associated with puberty, there may be trouble."


Preparing little girls for womanhood

While researchers speculate on reasons for the drop, parents must contend with broaching the subject of sexual development with children while they are still in grade school.

According to Helen Egger, M.D., a child psychiatrist in Duke University's department of psychiatry, once you've noticed signs, it's important to let your child take the lead. Egger's own daughter started showing signs of puberty at 8, so she gave her daughter some books about puberty geared to pre-teens as a catalyst for discussion. Then she waited for her daughter to approach her with questions.

"Our daughter wanted to talk about some of the topics that the books brought up, such as menstruation and breast development," Egger says. "She recognized on her own that her body was changing before her friends', and that naturally led to discussions about how she felt about that."

When it comes to talking about sex education with young girls, Egger suggests that parents proceed with care.

"Even though these girls' bodies are changing, they are still very much young children and emotionally are probably not ready to talk about some of things you might talk to, say, an 11-year-old about," she says. "Start by talking about the physical changes your daughter is going through, without going into details about having sexual relations. Most 8-year-olds haven't even considered dating, let alone having sex."

One bonus to talking to a child early about puberty is that she is more likely to be open to a discussion at 8 than she will be at 10.

"When my youngest girl started to enter puberty at 8, we talked a lot about the changes she was going through -- like getting hair under her arms and the beginnings of breasts," says Mary Weisnewski, the mother of two girls, 11 and 16. "But once they reach 10, they clam up and don't want to talk about these things with their parents -- they'd rather talk with their friends."

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/children/03/31/early.puberty.wmd/

Answer 2

I agree with the "budding" part but not the pubic hair part. My daughter started "budding" this past May, a couple of months before her 9th birthday. It seems that children are developing earlier and earlier in more ways then just physically now a days.

Answer 3

Yes, children are developing earlier and earlier. It most likely in the water, meat and other foods. The chemicals are giving the girls especially a jump start.

Answer 4

I didn't start puberty until I was about 11 and a few days before my 12th birthday I started getting my period. I had been told that girls tend to start about the same time as their mothers. So I thought I had a little while longer. Any way my daughter turns 10 this week, earlier this year she started budding and it surprised me a little. I started doing a little research and most of it seems to be linked to the hormones they give dairy cows.

Answer 5

Some girls are starting to develop earlier.

It's not fun for them, its a difficult time to go through especially if none of the other girls her age are. By grade 4 I was already wearing bras and there was only 1 other girl in my class going through the same thing.

I'm not sure what causes it. I just always chalked it up to genes.

Answer 6

my best friend was beyond budding at the age of 8 lets just say that we were that age in the early 70's and there were plenty of girls that developed that early. there does seem to be alot more heavier girls and they always seem "to bud" as you say, a little earlier than other girls.
it is not in the food but maybe the amount of it ..

Answer 7

Children develope at different rates. Alot has to do with the mothers diet and some studies have shown that children in warmer climates develop faster then those in the colder ones.

Answer 8

developing start between 8-15

Answer 9

The average age of the beginning of female puberty is down around 8 or 9 now, at least that's what my roommate's textbook said. I don't know for sure WHY it's happening though.

Answer 10

they start all over the place now. the girls are starting their periods earlier too. they say its hormones in the milk and meat...??? who knows. anyway-i know a couple of 8 year olds, that wear deodorant. i taught my kids @ 7 to start wearing it, just in case.get her some, and make her wear it, otherwise she is going to be opened up for some heavy teasing. she could bathe every night, and still stink, like everyone else, if she isnt wearing an antiperspirant. kids are stinkier anyway, becuase they run and play all over the place and are constantly sweaty.

Answer 11

steroids in fast foods have that effect on girls that are susceptible to that growth hormone in foods---- I know, I developed early and it wasn't due to being overweight ----I was having my period and wearing a bra by age 7 --- going to school wasn't fun because I looked older----due to a mature looking body.
My friend's daughter had a world class figure by the time she was 10---her parents were constantly calling the police on men who would follow her around trying to get dates with her --- she was scared out of her mind --- and wouldn't go out alone.