Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

Preteen DD and development help

5 replies

preteenmum · 25/01/2011 21:14

Hi there, I'm a regular but I've namechanged for this because there are pics of my DD on my profile and it's a bit of a sensitive issue.

My daughter is 11 and has recently started to develop quite a chest, but only on one side. I've reassured her it's normal and will even out. However, my dilemma is how to make her feel less self conscious in the meantime.

It's Ok under normal clothes but under dance leotards, swimwear, etc, it's really very noticeable and she is finding it very embarrassing. I try to say people won't notice, but she's not silly, she knows it's noticeable. To make matters worse, she's still very small for her age, only about the height of an 8 year old and barely more than 4 stone - so it looks stranger than if she was bigger overall. Where her body is finding the means for puberty, I've no idea - I thought her small size would put it off a bit. I do feel sorry for her because it looks so wrong on such a tiny child's body - but then, she is 11, I guess, and time waits for noone Confused.

I could get her a slightly padded bra, but I'm not sure if it will fit on the completely flat side, and also you can't wear bras easily under some of her dance/ swim stuff.

Has anyone else's DD had and coped with this or do we have to just suffer and wait? Any ideas to help her?

OP posts:
maryz · 25/01/2011 23:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sparklyblack · 25/01/2011 23:14

My DD2 has a condition where the chest muscle and breast tissue (or what will develop into breast tissue) is missing on one side of the chest. So her left breast never grew. I noticed that her chest was a little 'dipped in' on 1 side when she was a baby, but AFAIK it can be very variable, and quite a few people who have it don't know until they hit puberty.

Obviously I don't know if your DD has anything similar to this, and I don't want to scaremonger, but it might be worth asking the GP to refer her to a children's plastic surgeon.

Padded bras are a good idea... you can also get certain bikinis with removable padded cups, which my DD used to help pad out her empty bra cup.

sparklyblack · 25/01/2011 23:20

Just wanted to add, DD had a swimming costume with a kind of padded cushion in for a while and a bra with a similar thing, which we got from a specialist shop for ladies who've had mastectomies due to breast cancer. Not cheap but if she's really concerned and does lots of sports etc then you could look into it.

preteenmum · 26/01/2011 08:44

sparklyblack, thanks, I will keep an eye on it. I won't go to GP yet, but if she hasn't shown any signs of development a few months on (that side is completely flat at the moment) then I will talk to her about it and take her. At the moment I'm reassuring her as I don't want to worry her unnecessarily.

She is quite sporty so I might look into that kind of thing for swimsuits.

OP posts:
sharon2609 · 26/01/2011 21:01

Are they allowed to wear t shirts over their cozzies?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread