Puberty is starting earlier

My daughter entered puberty at age 6. Its scary stuff and I am not even puzzling why it happened because I know I will drive myself mad doing so and end up blaming myself for something that was probably beyond my control.

Before the first lockdown, DD was one of the tallest in her class. By the September, going into year 5, a lot of the girls were bigger and moore grown up looking, more like young teenagers. End of year 6 now, and there's a few girls in her year that look like kids, but most don't.

Just by casual observation... I think they are.

I was about to say the same thing Claudius. There is a well recognised link between childhood obesity and early puberty, documented in multiple studies in different countries. Since we have a problem with the former, it's hardly surprising that the latter is becoming an issue too. It might not be the only cause it's true, but it is likely to be a major contributory factor.

I thought periods were linked to body weight. Heavier or taller girls at school usually started their periods earlier. I was a very skinny child and was one of the last start my period. Underweight girls or those with anorexia often don't have periods at all or very light irregular periods. Sex hormones need a certain amount of fat in our diet and bodies to function properly.
So it would kind of make sense that as nutrition improved children grow faster so start puberty earlier, but also children are more likely to be overweight now, exercise less and carry more body fat.

I think weight is key, for girls anyway.
Is family history a factor?
I reached puberty at primary school 50 years ago. DS did the same. He had huge growth spurt and voice broke at 11.

I also tried think the increase in obese children is a factor, girls starting periods younger is more prevalent in overweight children.

Isn’t it related to weight? I mean statistically, before someone says ‘my daughter is 10 stone at age 10 but hasn’t started her periods’. Childhood rates of obesity have also gone up.

I've been teaching at the upper end of primary school for a long time and we are definitely seeing more girls starting their periods whilst still in primary. My Y5 class (9-10yo) has 3 girls who have started having periods.

Is there a UK perspective on this.

Without wishing to ignore or question these findings as they do make sense the US also has the whole big pharma thing going on and of course they sell/make/can prescribe drugs that delay puberty.

I fear some of this and the way it's written will compound parents fears of puberty. Will this then lead to medicating of a normal process leading to further issues

And lack of movement. I am curious to know how 2 years of lock down has affected puberty.

before the first lock down my DD did all the activities. 10 weeks into lying on her bed not doing anything and she had grown about a foot in height and had started her period. She was 10.

Somebody must be studying this. There must be a correlation

I don’t think it helps that a lot of the food we eat has been pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones , sprayed with insecticides or has swallowed micro plastics in the water. I remember children in Japan with puzzling illnesses, turned out the fish they ate were contaminated by run off from factories containing heavy metals, and children in South America developing breasts because of the hormones fed to the chickens they ate. Our children breathe in contaminants in the air caused by car fumes, we wash them with detergents containing parabens. In less than a hundred and fifty years we have have poisoned and contaminated our oceans, our rivers and our soil and it must eventually have an effect on childrens bodies, maybe physical development is one of them.

We also have in theory better nutrition now. So that could also be a factor. Although obviously parents are busier now with work etc meaning that despite access to all the food we could possibly want there's not the time or money to buy it or cook it.

Differences in parenting style too. I grew up in the " don't eat your veg dont get your pudding " and " eat it or go without " era.

Now parents are far more likely to cook what they know kids will eat rather than whats good for them. It would probably be considered abuse now to send a kid to bed hungry .

What's the explanation behind the depressions etc?.that's something extremely common in kids and adults now. A result of entirely broken medical end educational systems perhaps?

I dont think it was intended that way but this idea that they will be more prone to sexual harassment is kinda written so it absolves the men of responsibility and its entirely the fault of a defective body developed too soon 🙄

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10834835/amp/Young-girls-starting-undergo-puberty-young-six-years-old.html

Its an odd phenomenon. It seems to be changing fast too. I’m sure I remember reading something relating this to hormones in cows milk but I can’t find this at all now.