How old was your DD when breast buds developed?

[NaturalMamma]

My DD will be 7 in the fall. She is very slim and so it was easy for me to notice that one side of her chest was no longer as flat as the other. Then I felt it and noticed it was lumpy. Sure enough, the pediatrician said breast buds are forming!

Later in the day I checked DD and noticed she has a few pubic hairs. I'm thinking "precocious puberty" and planning to get in touch w/a pediatric endocrinologist. On Boston Children's Hosp web site it states that girls who start puberty before age 8 will most likely grow fast at 1st but will not reach their full height potential...most girls will not grow taller than 5ft.

The ped said "we'll continue to watch it" whatever that means. DD has her "well checkup" in Oct. This has only happened on one side...the ped said the other side usually follows about 6 mos later. Another web site said that usually menarche occurs about 1-2 years following the formation of breast buds or something like that. Okaaaaay... so my DD could be menstruating at age 8 or 9? :

Then there is a body fat connection and since my DD isn't even 50lbs yet I'm thinking there is no way she could be menstruating within the next couple of years.

Can you share what the puberty process looked like for your DD? I am pretty freaked out right now.

cindi

[oldermamato5]

Hi cindi. My dd is 9-1/2 and definitely has started maturing as far as breasts go. I'm not sure about pubic hair. She also got her permanent teeth very early. I noticed breast buds a year ago,so around 8-1/2 yrs. She by no means needs an actual bra but she does wear a little sport type bra. It's more like a half undershirt.
Your daughter is very young but I hear of this happening alot now. With all of the pesticides,growth hormones and antibiotics in our food these days you can see easily why this happens to our young daughters.
We are for the most part an organic family. Especially dairy products.

[NaturalMamma]

Originally Posted by oldermamato5

With all of the pesticides,growth hormones and antibiotics in our food these days you can see easily why this happens to our young daughters.
We are for the most part an organic family. Especially dairy products.

And I thought this would most certainly not happen w/our DD b/c we eat mostly organic food--esp dairy and meat. DD only has beef just a few times a year and it's organic ground beef I cook in a spaghetti sauce. All her baby/toddler food was homemade. She's never had a fast-food burger. I nursed her until she was almost 4. We used cloth diapers, don't use pesticides, conventional cleaning products etc. So I can't see how her diet/lifestyle could have contributed. It baffles me.:

[Naturalyst]

My personal history is probably more relevant as I started with breast formation and pubic hair sprouting around the same age as your daughter.

I was tall for my age when this started and a little underweight. I didn't grow much taller. (My understanding is that long bone growth slows, then stops, once hormones kick-in.) But, I'm an average height adult nonetheless. Interestingly, while I fully developed prematurely, I did not start menstruating until the same age as most of my peers - sometime around 12. And, while many of my peers are starting with signs that menopause is on the horizon, I am not.

No one checked for any sex hormone abnormality when I was a child. As an adult (in my late 20's), I developed a thyroid tumor that was surgically removed and I've been on synthetic thyroid hormone since. When the tumor developed, I went from underweight to overweight (where I've stayed since). But, I've never been told or had any reason to suspect that there is any connection to the premature development.

If I were in your situation, I'd ask the ped to run the endocrine tests (they're just blood tests) as it's, obviously, troubling you.

[gingerstar]

Cindi, I can totally relate! :
My eldest developed breast buds at age 8. She does wear stretchy sports-bra type things, but she hates it. Due to some other issues (neurological) she is heavier, so she does have the body fat thing. I did seek out a ped. endocr. and am glad I did, since she is hypothyroid, which then affected her hormones and spurred her early development. She is now on Synthroid, but once puberty has kicked in, it doesn't turn back off, so....here we go!
I was expecting my girls to take after me, (developed late) but my 9 yo takes after my DH and his mom, who told me she was very similar to my dd and developed early.
We also drink organic milk, I nursed her til she was three, try to do everything right....
Obviously, I am not saying that your dd is like mine, lots of differences, but I just had to chime in and say you are not alone!

[zenmamasan]

our story on breast buds...

NaturalMama,

Just thought I'd chime in and relate my dd story. When she was about 1.5 years old, I noticed she started having breast buds - silly Dr. said this was normal at birth, citing mothers hormones through the breastmilk etc. I didn't accept that as I said she never had them when she was born. On a completely different matter, I visited a constitional homeopath with her for recurrant diaper rash/yeast infections, and relayed my concern. The first question she asked me was do I drink soymilk. {I was breastfeeding, so anything I have, she would have...} I was in fact totally substituting soy for dairy, since I had discovered that my dd, {and therfor me!} was allergic to the dairy in my breastmilk. The diaper rash should have clued me into the soy issue. She said knock off the soy milk immediatley as it was an endocrine diruptor. So I did, and the breast buds dissappeared over the course of six months. Ever since then I have been leery of soy, and my childrens. We now only eat cultured soy products like miso and tempeh.

She is now ten, and shows no signs of breast developement yet, yet she says that they sometimes are tender/achy - which I read was normal for pubescents. Since she has relayed that she is developing a few pubic hairs, I excpect the breast buds will be forming soon.

Hope this helps - maybe she drinks/eats soy on a regular basis ?

Julia

[NaturalMamma]

About the soy...

Thanks, everyone for sharing. It's helpful!

I did drink some soy milk when she was younger, but saw that it seemed to upset her, so I traded it for Rice, Almond or Oat milk. And w/the whole soy controversy : I do try to limit my soy intake, although I believe that more natural forms of soy like miso and tempeh are supposed to be good. A nutritionist told me to limit the veggie/soy burgers (that have more refined soy).

So my DD has very limited exposure to soy. I'm starting to wonder whether it has any correlation w/conceiving her at the age of 38 when my FSH was high. I am 46 now and my cycles are still regular, though. But since about my early/mid-thirties I've had terrible pms (moodiness, etc.) that goes away the minute AF comes when my estrogen plummets. So I wonder if I have estrogen dominance.

Oh, my head hurts from all this thinking.

I contacted an endo from the Children's Hosp here. They need a referral from DD's ped (*not* for insurance reasons) and so I'm waiting for the ped office to call me back.

I figure that blood tests are a minimally-invasive method of finding out what is going on in DD's body and so that's all I would want to pursue right now.

cindi

[gingerstar]

Thanks for pointing out about the soy. We do not do soy due to allergies, but I didn't think of that.
My NP, who I love, told me that with my girls I need to be careful of exposure to Tea Tree Oil and lavendar, because research is showing them to be estrogen mimics or something, and that they can add to a situation like this.
I think you are wise to see a ped. endocr. - better to find out if something is going on.
Good luck, mama.

[NaturalMamma]

Originally Posted by gingerstar

My NP, who I love, told me that with my girls I need to be careful of exposure to Tea Tree Oil and lavendar, because research is showing them to be estrogen mimics or something, and that they can add to a situation like this.

Really? The bad news never ends. It's enough to make you : Now I know the true meaning of "ignorance is bliss".

cindi

[pixiesmommy]

I'm afraid we're in the same boat here.. DD is starting to "pooch" out a little bit and I was wondering the other day if it was normal for her age- I don't remember being at that stage until 4th grade and she's only 6.5 yrs old!!!

We do organic milk here too, but not always meat and she drank soymilk for about 2 years (age 1-2 or so) instead of dairy until I found out about the side effects it can have. We don't do soy now at all.

We don't use lavendar (other than occasionally the dishsoap has it) and no tea-tree oil either.... my guess for her was the beef that we eat. :

Manda

[Mirzam]

I have read so many posts by mamas with DDs who appear to be developing early who feed their children organic foods and no bgh milk or beef, so this puzzles me if it were totally diet related. One thing that does come to mind though is tap water. Is your water fluoridated? There has been research done which shows fluoride can effect the pineal gland which will cause early pubity. But not only is there fluoride in tap water but also residue from the countless pharmaceutical drugs that people take nowdays.

FWIW, my eldest started developing breast buds at around 11. My 9 year old DD (10 at the end of September) has not started developing buds yet.

[jennlyn]

The only child I knew personally that had such early development had a problem with her adrenal gland. Rare, yes, but best to check into things.

[shanagirl]

DD is 9 and I noticed her nipples were puffy between 7 and 8. I called the doctor and he said he sees many children, boys and girls, with that at that age and he said they don't know what exactly causes it but he was emphatic that it was not the start of puberty. He is a great holistic doctor, so that put my mind at ease. He said in many cases they go back to being flat after months, which made him theorize it's some kind of hormone surge.

However, she's 9 now and they have gotten a little bigger, so they are definitely buds, and they're very tender. She wears a cami bra under certain clothes because she doesn't like being teased about the protrusions.

To reference benchmarks others have given, she is tall and slender. We eat 80% organic, esp dairy, and meats without growth hormones. I nursed her until she was 3. I was 36 when I had her.

I wonder about the water too.

[ChristaN]

Originally Posted by shanagirl

I called the doctor and he said he sees many children, boys and girls, with that at that age and he said they don't know what exactly causes it but he was emphatic that it was not the start of puberty.

However, since the OP mentioned pubic hair as well, I'm thinking this likely is a hormonal/early puberty concern.

FWIW, my family is veg*n and we do eat a reasonable amount of soy (which I also ate during pg and lactation) and I've seen no signs of breast buds or other puberty signs in either of my girls as of yet. My oldest will be 9 in a month and I think it's a ways off unless it comes on pretty suddenly as she has nothing going on yet. I do notice at the pool, though, that at least half of the other girls her age are developing more "womanly" shapes with wider hips, etc.

My younger dd, who will be 7 in Sept., has a few friends who wear training bras, so it doesn't seem totally uncommon. Most of those friends are overweight, though, and that doesn't sound like it is a concern for your dd.

[MomOBrien]

Wow I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering why my nine year old looks like a twelve year old.
My oldest started with breast buds at five and I took her to the dr.because I had no idea what was going on. He told me not to worry. She didn't really get going until sixth grade. My second dd had body odor at seven which I thought was odd. She is now nine and could use a sports bra (i actually bought her one) but she refuses to wear it. I'm not gonna push it through the summer, but maybe once school starts again. My now seven year old has just started with the body odor thing too...she has always been a bit chunky so we'll have to see how it goes for her.

[mama2kds]

My dd will be 10 in Oct. and I just noticed last week that maybe it was time to wear a bra. I think most of her friends wear them.

She's had body odor for about a year.

[Purple Sage]

Just thought I'd share my experience...I developed early, too. I had just turned 8 when I started wearing a bra and just turned 10 when I started my period, and I was always much taller than all of the kids my age until I stopped growing at age 12 (I'm 5' 7"). My family encouraged lots of dairy and meat, not organic at all, but my mother also matured early so there's probably a genetic component, as well.

My 10yo dd has just started developing breasts which isn't too early, I don't think. Not sure about pubic hair, but it wouldn't surprise me. We limit dairy and meat and buy organic most of the time, although I've read that there are hormones present to some degree in all animal products, organic or not. Dd also does not like soy. Just thinking outloud on the role diet might play.

[love2all]

My dd was raised on soy milk, still drinks it today- actually she consumes a fair amount of soy (tofu) and just started developing breasts and pubic hair at age 11.
We recently went bra shopping for the first time!!!
She is 12 in less than a month....

no moon yet.........

[Mirzam]

I thought I would post this article from the UK on early puberty:

Girls entering puberty by the age of six - but are drugs the answer?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1879

The generally accepted international standards of normal puberty for white girls were set by a study of 200 females in a British orphanage in the 1960s, which established that 12 years six months was the average age at which periods began. Similar studies of boys concluded that 14 was the average age of sexual maturity for them.

Over the centuries there has been a steady decline in the onset age for puberty. In Victorian times, it was about 15 for girls and older for boys; before that, records from Renaissance choirs show that youths of 17 and 18 were often still to hit puberty because their voices had not yet broken.

So far, there is no real agreement among doctors about whether we are just seeing a continuation of this decline in the average age at which puberty occurs, or whether it is part of a more worrying environmental trend towards children growing up too quickly.

However, most agree that if breast and pubic hair development happen before eight or nine in girls, or signs of puberty manifest themselves in boys under ten, it is 'abnormal'.

and

Sally Watson, the spokesperson for the study, says: 'It is too early to say if early puberty is really affecting a lot of children or what might be causing it, but this study will give more information than any previous investigation because we have tracked these children since their mothers were pregnant.

'We know what age the mothers started their periods, we know about their weight and diet, and we will be able to see what is inherited and what isn't.'

Another question yet to be answered is whether the development of breasts and other signs of physical maturity mean that menstruation and full fertility are also starting sooner.

[muldey]

My dd,who's 9,has been wearing a training bra for about a year.I noticed the breast buds shortly after she started 3rd grade.She's had body odor since about 7.5yo.No pubic hair yet.My cousin's dd is 9 too,and she already has her period.She does have triplo x syndrome though,so that may play a part.

I was wearing a regular bra by 3rd grade,and I started my period a week before I turned 10.I've always had very heavy painful periods,and I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about 2 years ago,when I could barely even get out of bed.I wonder if I may have had thyroid problems all along.I was an overweight child.Thankfully my dd is not,so I'm hoping she won't take after me.