I’m not convinced it isn’t happening with boys - the thing with boys is that the changes are more subtle - they aren’t suddenly bleeding and needing bras.
My son, in sixth grade, went from little kid face to having a jaw. A serious manly jaw. When he was nine, there was giggling from the bathroom and the announcement that one of his friends had “hair down thair.” He’s not quite fifteen and anytime he wants to take the peach fuzz off his face would be fine with me. And my son is Asian - not exactly known for growing manly facial hair.
(That article makes an interesting point - obesity MIGHT delay puberty in boys, because fat tissue can convert other hormones into estrogen).
This all reinforces the stance I came to with my daughter (10): treat it as something normal. Something different, that it’s expected to have questions and worries about, but a normal part of life. Also, it was very important to my daughter to be reassured that even when she gets her period, she will still be a kid. There’s a lot of messages out there about “becoming a woman,” and that prospect can be a lot scarier to an elementary schoolkid than some pubic hair and menstruation, you know?
And you know what? I’m going to make sure that my children’s school has disposal containers in the stalls, because even if my kid will likely be out of the building before she needs them, we all know there are girls dealing with it in her school right now. And it’s awfully shitty not to have facilities for them. Putting on to do list
Oh, and I got her My Body, My Self, and it’s perfect. She does NOT want to be reading about what’s happening to boys, or about sex. She just wants information (details!) about what her body will be doing in the next couple years. And that book gives her that. We have books about sex and babies and all that as well, but again, you don’t want to necessarily make the connection, “Now that you’re in puberty, it’s time for sex!” They are related, but not the same thing. She’ll know that once a girl starts ovulating, she can get pregnant from sex. But what she really wants to know is how you deal with spontaneously and unexpectedly bleeding, whether she needs a bra with certain shirts, how often she really has to take a shower, and stuff like that.
Exactly. I also would say don’t make a negative OR positive big deal about it. My mom tried to be all congratulatory and celebrate when I got my period and I was like, “Really Mom? This sucks. Don’t congratulate me.”
8 years old is not an abnormal age. On the earlyish side but within normal.
Breast development onset is without question earlier than it was even just a few decades ago but the onset of menses has not changedmuch. There is no hard timeline from breast development onset to onset of menses.
FWIW I do agree that the culprit is increased environmental estrogen-like substances so that the little early natural estrogen blips are on top of a higher background and cross a threshold for breast development. On the male side we do see a higher frequency of the already not uncommon male breast development of early puberty as well.
I started budding at age 8, and I’m sure that I was aware of it at the time, but I guess I had forgotten about it because I was recently looking through old family pictures (I’m 22 now) and was surprised (and rather angry at the unfairness of it) to see me with tiny little breast buds in a photo dated 1998. I was still just a little kid, a peanut, really, and I looked as though I was about 6, so the buds were a bit surprising. I didn’t start my period, however, until I was almost 11.
Hey, Mighty-Girl, your daughter should see an endocrinologist. She is admittedly borderline, age-wise, but precocious puberty is not something to ignore. There may be related health concerns, some serious. Also, rapid bone maturation caused by early puberty can cause growth to end too quickly resulting in short stature as an adult.
Delaying puberty through medications (monthly Lupron injections) is not uncommon. She would first get a bone-age x-ray of the hand (easy and painless), then a gonadotropin-releasing hormone stimulation test (which I can tell you all about, if you like).
At the very least, see a pediatric endocrinologist. PM me if you want to talk.
We’ll see her pediatrician on Tue, she needed to because it was her birthday recently and time for a yearly check up. He will probably send her to the endocrinologist.
I talked to my daughter’s best friends’ mom today. Apparently her daughter, who is a couple of months older than mine, is going exactly through the same. She was referred to a pediatric endocrinologist after they found raised levels of estradiol. She had a change of diet and the doctor is monitoring her. Unlike my daughter (who’s muscular), she’s very slim, skinny even, and a little shorter.
We’ll probably end up seeing the same pediatric endocrinologist.
No offense Mean Mr Mustard but your advice is way off base here. Again, breast bud development is NORMAL and pretty dang common at age 8 and 100% is NOT precocious puberty. We general pediatricians see it ALL the time and unless there is something else shouting out on a physical exam further testing or referral is not appropriate. Even 7 is not currently considered abnormal in non-White populations (although some still advocate for referral of non-White 7 year old girls with puberty onset). Estradiol should be somewhat elevated during early puberty albeit the test is notoriously unreliable.
Here is one basic puberty 101 for parents that should help some. (This one from Planned Parenthood.)
Again, early breast development does not necessarily mean early onset of menses; most girls still get their first period with a year of when Mom had gotten hers.
Definitely see and discuss with your regular pediatrician.
The pediatrician told me he’s seen more and more of these cases, and that although the lower “normal” age for puberty has been lowered he personally sends every child under nine to the endocrinologist, and have the parents decide the course of action.
Wow. My daughter will be turning five in October. I can’t believe this could be happening in less time from now than since she’s been born. She’s still a tiny child. . .
Nope. Won’t happen. I can live in denial for another while.
I will post an update when we see the endocrinologist. If it comes to that, we have decided to give her hormone treatment to delay puberty another year at least and give her time to grow physically and mentally.
My mom sort of freaked out when I started my period slightly early but still normal. “Oh my god! My baby’s growing up! Why do kids start their periods so young these days? :eek:”
It really didn’t help anything.
You say she doesn’t know, but I bet she has picked up on more than you think. Why does she think she’s going to a specialist? I’m sure she knows something is “wrong”.
I am also fairly certain breast buds at 8 are not abnormal but I’d trust the endocrinologist over people on the internet.
She hasn’t noticed anything. She doesn’t know anything. To her she had the same checkup she’s had every year for the last 8 years. I spoke to the doctor in private before he saw her. He referred me to an endocrinologist. She knows that she’s going to another doctor that will check she’s growing properly because she’s becoming a big child.
“If it comes to that” = if the endocrinologist suggests it. I will trust people with actual degrees over anonymous people on the internet with the health of my child. I can’t be that bad at this when I have managed to keep her 100% healthy to this very day (except for the occasional mild cold).
“Hormone treatment” is simply hormone blockers. They don’t add anything to the milieu, they simply attach to the hormone receptors so that estrogens can’t. Very safe and well tested.
(Mighty_Girl, I think I’d do the same, for my girl should she develop breast buds today. She’s very smart, but she’s not particularly emotionally mature, and she’s a people pleaser, and that’s a bad combo with boobs…she knows just enough to get herself into real trouble before she’s developed the life skills to get herself back out again.)
My daughter is growing in as safe an environment as it possible could, short of sending her to the fortress of solitude. I am not scared about creeps.
I trust people would believe me when I say I know my child better than anyone. She’s very smart, like your daughter, and like yours mine is not emotionally mature enough for puberty. She is exactly what you expect of a kid who just turned 8 and has lived the sheltered life of a middle class kid living in a gated community.
