Hi. My 7 year old daughter also has hair growth under her arm. She also developed pubic hair which I first noticed at 6 1/2. She had been to an endocrinologist when she was 3 1/2 due to body odor that we had noticed. I was immediately concerned after talking to other friends and co-workers who all said that they did not ever notice body odor in their children at such a young age. I pushed it with the pediatrician who didn't seem concerned.  The endocrinologist did some blood work, checked for breast buds and completed an ultra-sound. Everything seemed normal. The discussion was then focused around getting her a deodorant and to avoid anti-persperant. I was relieved. We just needed to be diligent in bathing. I always felt bad for her because she HAS to shower or bathe every night and lots of kids her age don't. I tried to ensure that she only drank organic milk and thought I'd seen some improvement. She is an average size child, not too heavy, not too thin. She's what I would consider tall for her age, but not extremely tall. Since she wasn't a chubby kid, I was surprised to see what looked like breast development when she was 5 1/2. I started to make sure that she would wear a camisole if she had a shirt on that was slightly see through.  Then at the end of summer we noticed the hair growth. I was bathing her and her baby brother and I noticed the pubic hair. I was very upset but didn't let her see that I was. I called the endocrinologist the next day and got her right in. The dr. looked and said yes it was too early for that. She felt some starts of breast buds, but nothing that was overly concerning. She told me that reports are now starting to say that this kind of development earlier than 7 could point to precocious puberty. I personally feel like 7 is still too young and she agreed. The medical journals still say that 8 is the age that it starts to be less about precocious puberty and more on the early range of normal. Girls are starting to develop earlier these days, but I was still concerned. She repeated blood tests and did a bone age x-ray. Her blood work was fine and her bone age was just slightly elevated. We decided to just watch it. She saw her again yesterday and the pubic hair has grown a bit more and she now has some hair under her arm. The Dr. didn't feel like we needed to repeat blood work, but we will repeat the ultrasound that she had done 3 1/2 years ago. I asked if this is normal and she said that in 5-10% of the population, adrenal glands began to develop (or do whatever they do) earlier than normal and it doesn't mean a thing. It just starts and that doesn't mean that she will start her period or develop breasts or anything, just some hair growth and body odor (which will show up sooner or later anyway!). I asked for the dr.'s recommendation for the underarm hair since that will be obvious this summer. The Dr. recommended shaving it because kids will notice that. I showed her the razor yesterday to get her acclimated to it. She thinks it's funny, but now she said she's scared. So I had to show her that it doesn't hurt but shaving a tiny piece of my arm! (that little stinker! now I have a tiny hairless section on my arm! and she still refused!). I also told her that it would be her choice if she'd like to remove the pubic hair. That's what I don't know what to do. I remember when I started to get it and I was much older, I think 4th grade, 5th grade, but my friends didn't yet. I was teased at sleepovers and I was embarrassed by it. I don't' know what to do for her. She doesn't really have situations in which her friends would see that yet (I know that this is really weird) but I wanted her to know that I could help her if she's uncomfortable with it. It's tough since she's just 7 years old! I don't know if that was right or wrong. I made sure to tell her that it wasn't anything to be embarrassed by, that everyone will get it, but she is just getting it a little earlier than her friends or cousins. These are the types of things that may shape who she is and how she feels about herself so I want to be very careful! Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I'm going through the same thing!Â
