How far into puberty did periods start?

[Granohlaa]

My DD was 8 in Feb and has started puberty with a vengeance. Since March she’s started getting a bit of downy hair down there, breast buds and has started getting smelly during her sports. She is a good head taller than the rest of her class but she always has been tall and slim. She’s also very stroppy and emotional!

I wasn’t expecting this. From what I read this is the very early end of normal so no need to worry but none of her friends (or in some cases her friends older sisters) are anywhere near where she is.

I’ve started talking to her about puberty and brought some books that we have looked at together but she mainly finds it all amusing!

What else can I do? And if your DD did start puberty early then how long before her periods started? I’m wondering if I need to get prepared?

[CC1991]

Although I don't have a DD, for me personally it was about 18 months. Started developing around my 9th birthday and got my first period at 10-and-a-half. Although I knew what was happening, I was completely unprepared for it to happen so early! I think my mum assumed I would start later as she didn't start until around 12.

I was also very far ahead of my friends and was about as developed as my friend's sister who was over 3 years older. The gap between the beginning of puberty and first period seemed shorter for me than for them as well.

[firsttimedad79]

I've just come on here to write exactly the same post as you!

My DSD is 8 and has started being really crappy for 1 week a month. Me and her mum were talking about it and I asked her if it could be PMS.

She didn't know so I came on to ask (her mum doesn't come on here).

But glad to see we are not the only ones!

[TenThousandSpoons]

Age 9 - B.O was first sign of puberty
Age 10 - hair
Age 11 - breast buds
Age 12 - started periods
I’ve heard periods start about a year after breasts start growing and that was true for my dd

[Hyacinth88]

My eldest started with hair and needing deodorant age 9
She started her periods age 13.

[Glitterblue]

We've had BO at a couple of months after turning 10, breast buds starting at 10.5, she's now 11 and 4 months and nothing else is going on yet.

[SisterMonicaJoansHabit]

Eldest developed awful BO at just gone ten.

Started breastbuds between 11 + 12.

Named her first pubic hair at 12 (has a lovely sense of humour and is very open).

Started the first period this feb, aged 13y + 7m.

There was also over two months between the first and second period.

DD2 was recently ten, and last week has to start taking daily showers and using deodorant. DD2 is very physically different to DD1. I was 13y + 2 and a bit m when I started my first period, my mum was 13 with her first.

So I guess it could be 18m to 3years

[Eleoura]

I don't have a DD but this was me:

8yrs- 2nd tallest girl in year, slim, started breast buds
9yrs- dreadful, bitchy stage. I still recall being so awful to family and friends but had no idea why at the time. I can only put it down to hormones, because I've never been like that since, and was never like that even as a teen!
10yrs- hair and some weight gain. Other girls grew taller than me for the 1st time!
1 week before 12th birthday- got period. In my case, it was several years after breast buds.

[Nat6999]

I started breast buds & hair age 8, had to wear a bra age 9 & periods started 9.5, I was only 5 foot tall until I was very ill age 12 with chicken pox, then measles & finally mumps as one finished the next started. I was off school over half a term & had grown 6 inches & lost 2 stone when I went back to school. One of ds friends has only just started her periods age 16, I'm convinced her weight must be connected with it, she is tiny & only weighs 7 stone.

[NiceGerbil]

Both of mine started 8.5.

Both got first period in summer hols before year 6.

They are summer babies so only just turned.. can't remember! So young.

DD1 got on with it.
DD2 wouldn't talk. Took sanitary towels I put in a pretty little wallet out of her bag. Repeatedly. If I tried to talk she would stick get fingers in her ears and leg it. She is younger for her age (still plays with toys now at 12!). She manages them though but never mentions it.

[NiceGerbil]

When she does start talk to the school about arrangements.

Our school is v small and girls who had started could use the visitors loo. No bins in the normal ones for the kids.

[NiceGerbil]

Dunno about weight.

I always thought that but the DDS are totally different builds and heights. DD1 is 14 now and can't weigh more than 6st. She is maybe just 5ft.
DD 2 is a much bigger build like her dad. She is really strong and powerful and has always towered over classmates.
She can lift her big sis off the ground. And me!

Genetics come in maybe- I started early in first year secondary which was young on the early 80s and I can't have been more than 6 stone then either.

[BirdsandBeesmakinghay]

Weight is a big factor. It is only over a certain weight that puberty starts.

[NiceGerbil]

What weight is that?

Because. I don't think it's as simple as that.

My previous post ^° says our experience.

[BirdsandBeesmakinghay]

I’ve heard this repeatedly in the past .
I guess it’s do with height and build so there is no particular weight. It depends on the person and how much body fat they have. Natures way of ensuring a woman is well enough nourished to support a pregnancy.

[NiceGerbil]

That's not true though either.

Loads of girls are seriously physically damaged around the world by being married young because you go from child to adult when puberty starts.

10 yo girls are not physically developed enough to bear a pregnancy irrespective of periods. The WHO has more info on the damage done with children that age bearing children.

[NiceGerbil]

And I don't think I could have done it at 12 or dd1 when periods started.

I was just 12.

Both my DDs were 10.

I was maybe 6 stone. DD probably 5ish.

[Asherline]

If it's common for girls to develop in the later stages of primary school why do they still wait until 10/11to be old enough to discuss this. Was ok for me as I was a late developer but it must be ridiculously scary for a young girl to start developing when they haven't a clue what's going on, and then have to look different using adult toilets when fiends can't. That must make it so much worse?

[alexdgr8]

yes, i was wondering that about the toilets.
the implication means they have no privacy about the matter.
why can't the schools just put bins in girls' toilets.

[alexdgr8]

as to age and knowledge, wouldn't most girls have noticed their mother buying sanitary products and gradually become aware of their use, and maybe ask questions, so that by about 9 the idea it will not be so strange.
someone whom i knew had a hysterectomy, and was surprised when her son, aged about 8, and long before such things were talked about in school, said to her: so you won't need those little cushions mummy?

[Ouch44]

Just wanted to make sure those whose DDs are going through puberty early know about period pants. They're not for everyone but they would also get round the having to use the staff toilet situation at primary school. My DD has some that last all the school day.

Got her samples of all kinds of sanpro which she kept in her drawer and then decided what she was going to use once she got her period. She hates talking about this kind of stuff but wanted to make sure she was prepared when it started.

[Granohlaa]

Thanks all. Sounds like she will most likely be starting her period in the next 18-24 months then, so year 4/5. I’ll buy some bits and bobs, and try and get her thinking about periods in a more sensible way. I am aware of the toilet situation at school as my friends DD started at 10 in year 6 and she had to ask to get bins put in the year 6 toilets!

I think period pants will be the best thing but I don’t want to buy them in advance as they’re so expensive and she is growing very quickly!

[StealthRoast]

My dd is 10 and in year 5. She started puberty around 8 with breast buds and body odour and in the last year she has physically developed so much and has breasts and pubic hair and lots of hormones. I think her period is imminent.

I started mine at 10 too and she’s a chunky child like I was but also tall with it but thank god she hasn’t taken after me with her feet as I was in a size 8 shoe at her age and she’s only in a 4.
I’ve always been very open with her about periods etc and she’s always hated the thought of it but her best friend started hers around 6 months ago ( she’s very slim so not sure on the link to weight ) and dd seems much more open to it now, not like she has much choice!

In her primary school they have bins in the junior girls toilets upstairs and a notice on the wall which tells the girls to ask reception for the “red box” if they need any supplies.

I’ve broached the subject before about supplying a little pack for her school bag “just in case” and she’s always refused but I think going into year 6 in September with a male teacher may change her mind.

[BirdsandBeesmakinghay]

I thought there was a drive towards mixed sex toilets now in al schools? What a nightmare.

[BiBabbles]

It was about 2 years for DD1. She found the Care and Keeping of You books good though they're a bit American.

I made her a little emergency kit with disposable pads, wet wipes, and a few things like an envelope with an emergency tenner. When she actually started, we looked through some options and bought cloth pads and a pack of black underwear that she's meant to wear with them (doesn't always and then learns why I bought them in black). She liked 'My Little Red Book', an anthology from around the world about first periods, it kinda helped her feel more normal as she was the first among her friends and was in the process of mid-year transferring schools so wasn't yet comfortable talking about those things yet with the girls at her new school yet.

I thought there was a drive towards mixed sex toilets now in al schools? What a nightmare.

I think the drive is for toilets that are easier to supervise. I've seen one school that's done that mostly mixed sex (though had single sex changing rooms), but I've seen others that were single sex. In a new-built secondary near me, it's single sex and disabled on each floor with some 'gender neutral' single loos on the ground floor.

[Rapunzel80]

I personally would make appointment with GP just to make sure everything's okay. As you say OP 8 is the early side of normal but it does sound as if puberty is progressing relatively quickly for your dd.