Healthbolt

Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon

by Liberty on December 12th, 2007

Puberty already? No thanks!

What’s the worst news a mother could hear besides “Spike and I are getting married at the biker rally next weekend and he surprised me with some leather chaps to wear”? Easy. It’s “Mom, I’m getting boobies.”

Bad news, indeed. But increasingly, American parents are hearing this woeful proclamation, you know, the one that curls your hair tighter than your daughter’s newly-sprouted pubes. Because compared to the girls from a few decades ago, today’s girls are reaching puberty at an earlier age.

Here’s the scoop. Back in 1997, Pediatrics published a study which followed 17,000 American girls. What they found was freaky (and remember, this was 10 years ago. Imagine what these numbers might look like now).

• At age THREE, 3% of African American and 1% of white girls showed breast and/or pubic hair development.
• At age SEVEN, the percentages were 27.2% of African American girls and 6.7% of white girls.
• At age EIGHT, almost half (48.3%) of African American girls and nearly 15% of white girls showed development.

Startling? Yes, but not nearly as much as the potential downfalls of developing so early. For example, high-risk pubescent behaviors such as substance abuse and sexual activity begin to surface earlier. And since today’s girls are experiencing earlier periods and thus a lengthened exposure to estrogen, their odds of developing breast cancer later in life are increasing. Now that’s scary.

So what on earth is causing this freak-out-inducing trend? It’s likely that several factors are playing a role in this game of Girly Grow-Up. Here they are:

• Low birth weight and premature birth
• Environmental toxins that interfere with normal endocrine function (anything from the hormones added to foods to the pesticides on produce, etc)
• Childhood obesity and/or a higher body mass index
• Formula-feeding babies
• Physical inactivity
• Family dysfunction

So what’s the lesson to be learned here? If we want our daughters and granddaughters to be children as they should be, a trend toward “the old school ways” is probably the way to go. Breastfeed if possible, get your girls off the couch and into a physical activity class or group, buy organic when you can, and surround your child with a nurturing environment. None of these things may make the problem go away overnight, but they make for an excellent start.

So, what do you think? Are you disturbed by this early puberty trend? And if so, are you taking an precautions to preserve your daughter’s childhood? Let us know.

Source: American Journal of Nursing

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POSTED IN: Children, Health, Medical History, Prevention