Early puberty

[leapoffaith7]

I looking for advice, and reassurance, that other parents have experienced their child starting puberty early. My daughter is only 7 and is already "budding" and promoting the well recognised attitude of puberty.
I am pretty open to her knowing about her body etc..but she is so small for her age (wears 4-5/5-6 clothes) and has only lost two baby teeth!
Has anyone else experienced this?
My daughter has been diagnosed with an overactive bladder, quite a few years ago, and still struggles with incontinence and the thought of her starting her period is just a really scary prospect!
Anyone who can empathise with either situation, it would be appreciated...sometimes feel there is so little help out there.
PS this is my first thread, so im hoping this has worked, lol [BLUSH]

Both my daughters started budding at about 8. Dd1 started her periods at 11 and dd2 at 12 so it didn't mean that everything would happen quickly. Dd1 was average height but hasn't grown since so as an adult she is five foot 2. Dd2 was tiny wore age 8 to 9 clothes even now at 13 she is only 4 foot 9 but I think she is still growing very slowly. One myth that I was told was that a girl would need to be seven stone for periods to start was proved untrue as both dd1 and 2 were only 5 stone and dd1 is only just 7 stone now 12 years after her periods started.

I read this and was surprised you weren't referred. Early puberty means bones fuse and stop growing early, so in a short child, that means possibly not reaching normal adult stature. She really needs a bone age assessment as they can slow bone maturity if advanced. Untreated, she could stop growing at 11 or 12 if bone age is advanced. I found this out too late for my DD as the NHS don't always pick this up.

My daughter is in precocious puberty. She started when she was almost 6 and had her first period when she was 8. She is 9 now and has small breast and quite a bit of pubic hair. She would have regular periods, had we not intervened. She will probably not reach 5 ft. Her doctor predicted that she will stop growing now (age 9), but so far she is still growing.

You need to have your daughter's wrist x-rayed, her uterus scanned and have her hormone levels analysed by an endocrinologist. They can give her monthly injections which will stop the puberty if necessary. The injections will also slow down growth (puberty and growth are connected), but she might regain a few cm. Girls can loose around 20cm of growth due to precocious puberty.

The most important thing is that you talk it over with your daughter and make her feel normal. Babette Cole's "Hair in Funny Places" is a good book to start conversations with little girls. Explain to her what is going to happen. Girls in precocious puberty have a high risk of depression and negative body image, so you want to give this a positive slant straight away and emphasise that puberty is normal, that everyone goes through it, she is just a bit early and that not going through puberty would be much more worrying.

I wish I'd know more when my daughter was discharged from Endocrine growth monitoring 😟
I was told her bone age was her actual age when she was 7, but later found that it was a year advanced. It meant she didn't get treatment to slow her bone age so didn't make adult stature.

You are right, depression as a consequence, has been devastating.

I was just coming on to post something similar. My dd, 8 1/4, has just got buds. I feel quite sad about it, but haven't let that show to dd in the slightest. She's feeling self-conscious about it. (we must be one of those families, as my other post today shows - ds with little 'tache!)

i'm actually interested in knowing if there's anything in terms of diet, etc (i.e. not gp/consultant/endocrinologist based) that can slow things down. I might put a separate post up.

My facebook feed also brought me this recently - www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11090 (scroll down to The New Puberty: How To Navigate Early Development in Today's Girls)

I need help!!!! Just noticed a could of hairs on my 8 year old boys bottom hole! Can't be puberty surely??????

Hi, everyone am just going through this with my dd. She is 6, soon to be 7, always been very tall for her age, and has had body odour for several months (we use a natural deodorant) and I have just noticed very faint underarm hair and a couple of pubic hairs growing.

From what I have read so far and am happy to be corrected, it appears unless there is breast budding, her symptoms are likely to be Adrenarche. To do with the adrenal glands. It is a process that happens to all 6-8 year olds, although is not fully understood why, other than there is some connection to puberty, but it seems in a small percentage of children this will stimulate the adult body odour and hair growth.
Of course there are other worries and causes which should be checked and ruled out, but personally having read others stories and experiences I am concerned about going the rather invasive and prolonged route of investigations and tests for something that is natural, if not very common.

Obviously concerns should be raised if there are more signs of Precocious puberty such as breast budding or unusual growth spurts, and any symptoms like headaches etc.

I found a good info sheet here, which is quite reassuring and calming at least if body odour/greasy hair/pubic/underarm hair are the only signs...

patient.info/health/adrenarche

I have been to see my GP without my daughter just for initial advice, however this visit only increased my reluctance to set my daughter on a road of testing and hospital appointments ?
My daughter is completely unaware of any issues with her body. I have made light of the body odour and used a deodorant as if thats normal for many of us to do, as part of bathing etc. She is not aware of her body hair as only I have seen it and made no issue with her.

If I take her for check ups now and then hospital referrals I know she will start to question and become overly concerned as she is quite a deep thinking child and very quick on the uptake. Its not easy to hide things from her and she can detect BS rather quickly even at her little age.

I don't want her childhood blighted by hospital check ups and doubts and worries and being made to feel abnormal or that something is "wrong" with her.
Even if it did turn out to be Precocious Puberty, as far as I have read the treatment to delay puberty involves hormonal injections every few weeks or similar treatments for the next 5 years or so. I just wouldn't be keen to put her through that and think I would rather deal with early periods as rotten as they can be than being made to feel something is wrong with you that needs treating ?

Its early days, but I may just leave things as they are unless other signs develop ?

There are a few posts on here another with mums going through the same thing. I found this one helpful.....

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_health/1586589-Precocious-Puberty

Keep chin up.