whilst I was bathing my 7 yo dd recently i think i noticed she has early signs of puberty, is this normal for a girl of her age, has this happened to anyone else? sorry but this has kind of freaked me out a bit, i didn't started until i was 11 or 12.

I watched a tv program about this recently. They said that girls are reaching puberty much younger these days, due to better nutritian etc. My dd is just 11 and has budding(?) breasts and pubic and underarm hair but she is very big for her age too, definately the tallest girl in her class. School nurse said this was relevant. I was well over 13 before I started developing.
7 does seem very young although not unheard of according to this tv program. I would pop her along to gp if I were you.

What signs have you seen?

Breast buds wouldn't be unusual at this age, if that's your concern - it can be years after they appear that the breasts themselves develop. It's also not unheard of for children this age to start getting pubic hair. Dd is seven this month and has had a little hair for a while yet; she also has breast buds. I'm not concerned because these signs don't automatically mean that periods and so on are imminent; it's all part of the way the body changes slowly over time.

Do you have a school nurse? Might be worth having a chat with her if you do, or getting an appointment with the nurse at your GP's surgery

7 does seem young but I'm not sure I'd take her to the gp in the first instance. You don't want her to start thinking there's something wrong with her. sorry i don't have anything more constructive to say though.

wendels you need to give us more info about the signs.

You could phone NHS direct for a chat - the issue with early onset of puberty is that the child stops growing too early. At least NHS Direct will tell you if they think it's worth taking her to the GP or not.

Hi, sorry for not going into detail before. I noticed a few months ago that she had budding around the nipples but recently it appears to be more than just budding. I also noticed whilst bathing her she has hair under her arms and some little bits around her front bottom. I don't want to take her to the docs, she seems quite happy about things and I don't want to cause her any unnecessary worry. I just wanted to know if any other mums have experienced early signs of puberty in dd's similar age.

Probably a good idea to find out all you can (between online and women's health clinics/GP etc) about early puberty so you can be informed without givng DD the impression that there is anything wrong with her.
I do very vaguely remember reading something some years ago about how DC were deliberately fed restricted diets to delay puberty (this is era about 1910-1960) but don't know how true it is.