body hair on 7 year old DD - should we see GP?

[nickEcave]

My DD is 7.5 and has increasingly large quantities of hair on her arms and legs. Like myself and my DH she has pale celtic skin and mid brown hair on her head but the hair on her arms and legs is quite dark and thick. It doesnt seem to bother her and I don't think she's been teased at school but she has mentioned it a few times. Could this be a sign of early puberty (there's no hair on her genitals and no change to her skin or bodyshape). I don't want to take her to the GP unless its necessary as I don't want to make her self conscious about it. Has anyone elses DDs grown body hair at such a young age?

[hellymelly]

Early puberty would have different signs, pubic hair and/or breast buds. My dd was investigated for precocious puberty, as she has some pubic hair, but in her case no other signs. It turned out that she has premature adrenarche, where the adrenals kick in a bit before the other hormones, so she doesn't have breast buds etc, just the slight body hair. I would think in your dds case it is probably just natural to her, unless this is a noticable change, in which case do get her checked as I would think it could be a hormonal issue.

[VenusDeWillendorf]

It's probably her adrenal glands kicking into life, not puberty.
All normal.
If she's getting super furry, you might want to het her checked out, but otherwise, you had to desensitise her to any comments she may receive.

[VenusDeWillendorf]

X posts helly, and using the same wording- the zeitgeist of mn.

[nickEcave]

Whenever shes mentions the hair I show her the hair on my arms (which is thick but blonde so not noticable) and say that most people have lots of hair but its different colours on different people. Fortunately I don't think she'll get bullied at her primary as its really diverse - dozens of different ethnicities and all the children look different and the school has a really good ethos against bullying. My dad and his brothers were very hairy so I think she may have got a gene on that side that I managed to miss out on.

[funnyface31]

My dd is the same, at 4/5 she started to become a lot more hairy. She had various tests at the hospital to check her out and they have decided it is hirsutisim as all tests came back clear (bone density, diabetic, ovaries test) she now sees the specialist once a year and when her periods start they want to test gain.

I just use immac as it is the safety and painless thing to use. She did get bullied and by boys too.
If it is excessive it's worth talking to dr.

Good luck x

[ElleDubloo]

Go see your GP who will refer her to a paediatrician. I'm a junior doctor and I don't know enough about paeds/endocrine to advise you, but I know early hair growth can signal a number of different things, some of which benefit from being diagnosed early and treated early.

It's worth getting a set of blood results even if they come back entirely normal ;)

[nickEcave]

Can I ask funny was the hair just on her arms and legs or elsewhere? DDs is almost all on her lower arms and legs there is none on her torso or above the knees or elbows. I'm just really reluctant to go the GPs and get into having tests and make a big thing about it. Presumbably there is nothing that can be done for hirsuitism other than removing the hair if it causes distress?

[funnyface31]

She had a layer of hair all over her body (if that makes sense) but arms and legs were as hairy as DH. For a little girl it was too much.
My family have some different cultures ( generations back) so they think it could be this.
If you want to ask anything else feel free. X

[mummabear1]

Hi there. I have a few posts on here over the last couple of years for the exact same issue. Like funnyface31, my two girls got quite hairy at 4. Like little bears :) Mainly arms and legs, bit on backs. I was beyond stressed as it was so obvious and they were starting to draw comments from kids and looks from adults. We also saw specialists, had scans, bloods and lots of checks done. All normal and healthy luckily so it was put down to hirsuitism.

My girls are now 7 and 9. The 9yo started shaving her legs at 7 with a wonderful shaver with a huge safety bit on the front and has never cut herself. We left all other hair.

Despite being told by doctors that it would get darker and thicker as they grew and hormones kicked in, the absolute opposite has happened and my older girls hairy arms are no more! I put it down to some sort of surge in hormones or something. Shes had no teasing for the last two summers and after years of worrying myself sick about them, I cant even notice them. It was medium brown hair on pale skin now its soft blonde and about 1/3 of what it was at 5. My youngest girl's is also thinning. She had a whorl on her back of dark hair which wasnt there at birth but turned up around 4 as well. Thats almost gone too.

I would definitely get bloods done if nothing else just to rule out any possible hormone imbalance. I rung ahead of time to our GP and discussed the problem with him and then when we went in he cast an eye over her without actually drawing attention to it. She was none the wiser at 4. I just said we were checking there was no ezcema on her arms and legs.

Hope that helps :) PM me if you have any other questions