Did your daughter get her period younger than you? (RESPONSE SURVEY) - Page 2

[meemee]

Originally Posted by Mama Soltera 

Would you all say your daughter's diets are healthier than the average kid today? Maybe that statistic just isn't true when the girls are having a healthier diet (the statistic about girls starting earlier than their mothers). I do think my daughter, though her face looks like me a lot, has a slightly different body type than me. Still, I think she'll make it another year before she starts her period. 

Thanks for all the responses. It's very interesting to read. 

to be very honest with you i think diet plays a v. small part in this. when you say diet you are really talking about the chemicals that we are ingesting right?

i think diet is just one tiny part of the ingesting. there is just too much around us to be able to pick out one variable and blame it on that. 

look at how many pee plastic. even with good 'things' like diet, environment there are traces of plastic in their pee. 

unless you lived off the grid in far off remote places. 

dd has her fathers body type and emotions and food habits. but she looks like me. if she follows in my footsteps she should start her periods in 3 months time. she is there with all signs of puberty except periods. including mood swings. i now have a starter pack just to be safe. quite a few girls in her 5th grade class have started. some in 4th. i too started in 5th. 

i look like my mom. have body type like my dad and temperament like my dad. in his family the girls started later. but i followed my mom's girly health to a T. 

i have no idea what its like on exh's side, since it was all boys and mil cant remember it was so long ago. she cant remember if she started at 13 or 17. 

[Wildflower]

I'm curious about this as well...I've read things about hormones in inorganic dairy and meat products playing a part and my dd has had her share of those so I'm hoping it won't have been enough to throw her body's natural  pattern off...

[mom2ponygirl]

I was nearly 14, my dd was 11.  However, dd was highly irregular for 18 months.  I may have also started much later because I was a serious athlete and had very low body fat. 

[Juuulie]

Well this is timely! My daughter just started her first period last week. She is only 2 months younger than I was when I got mine, and oddly enough we both got our first periods on Columbus Day.

[Mama Soltera]

Originally Posted by Wildflower 

I'm curious about this as well...I've read things about hormones in inorganic dairy and meat products playing a part and my dd has had her share of those so I'm hoping it won't have been enough to throw her body's natural  pattern off...

I think there are lots of healthier meat and dairy choices these days to where this doesn't have to be too big of an issue. I think people focus so much on this they forget about things like soy, which really does affect the hormones. I have known many women (including myself) who suffered major hormone issues and consequences from soy products. I worry the most about formula, both dairy and soy based. When that is all an infant is consuming and it's usually all through (heated) plastic. 

Originally Posted by meemee 

look at how many pee plastic. even with good 'things' like diet, environment there are traces of plastic in their pee. 

That is pretty disturbing. I have so many people tell me now though how they're using the safe kind of plastic so there's no negative effect to their health. 

And I agree with you that it's not so simple as how did you eat compared to your daughter. But it is common knowledge that girls are starting their periods younger and younger (whether it is in fact true or not) so I wanted to see if that is seeming to be true here. Then I realized that, compared to the general population, the families on this website likely eat a much healthier diet. So even if it's not true here (that girls are starting their periods younger) it still may be true about the nation as a whole.

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by Mama Soltera 

That is pretty disturbing. I have so many people tell me now though how they're using the safe kind of plastic so there's no negative effect to their health. 

And I agree with you that it's not so simple as how did you eat compared to your daughter. But it is common knowledge that girls are starting their periods younger and younger (whether it is in fact true or not) so I wanted to see if that is seeming to be true here. Then I realized that, compared to the general population, the families on this website likely eat a much healthier diet. So even if it's not true here (that girls are starting their periods younger) it still may be true about the nation as a whole.

I think what is happening, and I am convinced this is environmental, is puberty is beginning significantly earlier, as in 5 or 6 years old. By puberty, I mean, body odor and underarm and public hair etc. This does not translate into menstruation starting significantly earlier than the previous generation. Having a daughter developing pubic hair at this age, must be devastating for a mother, seeing her child being deprived of their childhood way before their time. 

[beaandbunny05]

I don't have daughters.. but.. I was 11 when I got mine. My sister is 12 years older than me and was 16 when she got hers. A young girl that I help take care of just started getting hair, so it's likely she won't get hers until closer to 14. However, I was also much heavier set than the girl I help take care of. My sister and I were built very similarly(actually, a lot of people still confuse us.. I had a lady in the store once ask me if I was her... I had another one apologize to me because she thought I was someone else based on my voice, when I asked if she knew my sister, she admitted that in fact, that was who she had mistaken me for and asked if I'd tell my sister she said hi).

So..

Me ~ Born 1993 ~ Period: 11 years and 2 months

Sister ~ Born 1981 ~ Period: 16 years

Little Girl ~ Born 2000 ~ Period: TBA 

[sharon71]

I got mine at 9.5 my oldest DD at 13,my middle DD at 14 and my youngest is only 7 and has not started.
 

[AAK]

Unless my oldest starts in the next month, she will not be earlier than I was.  I started about 6 weeks before I turned 13.  DD turns 13 at the end of January.

Amy

[spughy]

Just came across this thread by accident - I don't have a preteen, my DD is just turning 7 - but the thread title caught my eye and I remember seeing research on factors behind early menarche and one of the strongest factors seems to be paternal presence and function.

Another paper on this

And another

There are more, but none are exactly brilliant prose and scintillating reading.  Point is, diet and environmental contaminants aren't the only things that affect maturation - as social animals, our biological development responds to environmental cues from our social milieu as well.  Also, these are studies, they employ statistical methods to develop population-level predictions, so it doesn't necessarily mean that if YOU'RE divorced, YOUR child is going to hit puberty early.  But, it's something to think about.  How many of the moms here who reported their daughters' periods starting later than their own had absent/dysfunctional fathers, but are currently in stable relationships with their children's fathers?  Just curious

[whatsnextmom]

Originally Posted by spughy 

Just came across this thread by accident - I don't have a preteen, my DD is just turning 7 - but the thread title caught my eye and I remember seeing research on factors behind early menarche and one of the strongest factors seems to be paternal presence and function.

Another paper on this

And another

There are more, but none are exactly brilliant prose and scintillating reading.  Point is, diet and environmental contaminants aren't the only things that affect maturation - as social animals, our biological development responds to environmental cues from our social milieu as well.  Also, these are studies, they employ statistical methods to develop population-level predictions, so it doesn't necessarily mean that if YOU'RE divorced, YOUR child is going to hit puberty early.  But, it's something to think about.  How many of the moms here who reported their daughters' periods starting later than their own had absent/dysfunctional fathers, but are currently in stable relationships with their children's fathers?  Just curious

My parents were together all my childhood and are still together. I'm in a solid marriage with my children's father. DD started 2 years later than myself.

Honestly, I suspect it's a little of everything on a societal level.... environment, diet, genetics, body type/weight, living with or without father and possibly even media exposure to more sexual images and discussion. I've read before that the steady presence of a husband or father helps to regulate a typical woman's menstrual cycle and I think anyone who has lived in a college dorm for a few months can vouch for how our bodies do adapt to the hormones around us. 

Individually, what could effect one girl may not effect another as much or at all. Trying to pin-point any one reason would be pretty difficult in most cases I think.

[Kindermama]

I was 11yrs 2 months and she was 12 years 8 month. Cool thing is we both got our first periods on our maternal grandmothers birthdays. Pretty cool!

[julie128]

My grandmother was 17; my mother was 16; I was 15.  Neither of my girls has started menstruating yet; they are 11 and 9.  I have a feeling, based on body development, that the 11 y.o. will be just a little over 13 when she gets her first period.  The 9 y.o. is showing no sign of development, and she is very skinny, so I think she will be more like 14-16. 
 

While DD11y does not menstruate, she appears to have a mood cycle linked to my cycle.  She turns into a psychopath before and during my period.  And, no, it's not just my perception.  Trying a homeopathic on the advice of our pediatrician.