DS (seven) has had a little bit of pubic hair (I'm talking just the beginnings) since last year, a few months after turning seven. He also has noticeably hairy legs - kind of midway between barely-there and a man's hairy legs. He is very tall for his age (always has been), wearing age 10-11 clothes.
The few (now 50, DS reckons!) pubes had me a bit alarmed at first, but then we got used to them - and apparently a few early pubes in isolation aren't much to worry about. But I've started to notice emotional changes lately, which are now making me wonder if DS is definitely hitting puberty way earlier than he should be.
He has been getting tearful and saying he feels sad/confused/"it's complicated"/he doesn't know why - and I don't think he's depressed, or that anything is specifically bothering him. He has become harder and harder to get to sleep at a decent hour: even if he's in bed at an age-appropriate time, he tosses and turns, gets up because he's hungry ... and 10pm or even 11pm can come round before he's asleep. (This is obviously making him tired too.) He gets moody, has bursts of aggression, and then we have tears and he just needs to be cuddled. He doesn't want to be seen with me at school - I have to wait outside the gate now, and he kind of grunts a detached "bye" in this affected manly voice. (I know they all get to this point, but he's so young!) We have joked sometimes that he's seven going on 17, but really, it's not a joke if the hormone changes that make teenagers behave as they do are actually starting to happen to DS now. I keep thinking: "He's only seven!"
Yesterday, we finally had a classmate (a girl) over who he's wanted over for a while. They had a lovely time - and he was clearly trying to impress her with his fast running (sweet) - but after she went yesterday evening, and for half the day today, he's been like a lost lamb; all adrift emotionally. He doesn't know what to do with himself, says he feels all funny in his tummy, he's sad, misses her, etc. This is a crush, is it not?! I don't remember having one of those until I was at least 11.
Whatever's causing the pubes/hairy legs/need for Lynx also seems to be affecting DS emotionally, and this is starting to worry me. I've been open with him about periods, how babies are made, how bodies change - but the thought of him actually developing sexually (both physically and emotionally) himself at such a young age is a concern for me, as well as somewhat uncomfortable and saddening, really.
I've done a bit of an online sweep, and signs of puberty in boys younger than nine are to be checked out apparently, so I've booked a doctor's appointment for a few weeks' time with a lovely, sensitive, child-friendly doctor. But in the meantime/in addition, is there anything else I can do to support him? I feel for him, going through the kind of emotional upheaval most kids don't begin to experience until they're in double figures. Grateful for advice from anyone with any experience of this.
Thanks.