A friend’s daughter was diagnosed with precocious puberty. I can not begin to imagine what both she and her daughter are going through.

If you don’t know what precocious puberty is, it is the very early onset of puberty. This girl is five years old and is going through the bodily changes that had a girl would normally go through at the age of 10, 11 or 12. I’ll leave the details at that. I think you can figure it out.

When we were looking for a placement, we looked at a profile for a little who was diagnosed with precocious puberty. When I read more about it, we decided it was not the right fit for our family, especially with a son who was fully into puberty and was becoming extremely sexually aware. This was just a bad combination.

The signs are slightly different in boys and girls, because they go through puberty differently. After all, their bodies are quite different.

Girls:
• Breast development
• Onset of menstruation

Boys:
• Deepening of voice
• Enlarging of testicles or penis

In both boys and girls:

• Pubic or underarm hair development
• Body odor
• Acne
• Sudden growth spurt

Any of these “symptoms” could start before the age of seven or eight years old. I can not imagine having a six year old girl starting her period. In most girls that age, you haven’t yet had the technical discussions of reproduction because they are not emotionally ready to handle that, much less having this actually happening to their bodies.

Throw in the chances of sexual abuse in a foster child and early developing hormones and sex drive you may be tempted to lock your child in a convent or monastery.

In some cases there may be a brain injury or tumor that is causing early development. If this is the case, the injury or tumor is treated, and it may help to slow down or stop the abnormal development.

In most cases it is simply is a glandular problem and giving hormones to counteract the high level of estrogen or testosterone in their bodies. This can put them back onto an age appropriate track for development.

There is some debate as to whether or not the hormones used in milk and meat products are causing children to develop early. There are many websites that will argue both sides of this discussion.

On of the hardest things with this “disorder” can be the teasing by other children. If your six year old daughter starts to develop breasts, you know the other kids are going to notice and they will say something. Practice with your child how to handle some of the comments that might happen.

For additional information, see the following websites.

Kids Health
Mayo Clinic
Wikipedia

Photo credit - My sweet girl, Hannah