- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- dads today articles
- dads today q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Central Precocious Puberty
When Puberty Occurs Earlier Than Expected
By Teri Brown
Parents look forward to puberty with both trepidation and elation – trepidation at explaining all the adult things of the world and elation that their baby is growing up. But what happens when puberty occurs prematurely? What happens when your child is only 6 or 7 years old or even as young as 2 or 3?
Lisa White, a homeschooling mother of five from Bement, Ill., noticed that one of her 3-year-old daughter's breasts was larger than the other. Their pediatrician dismissed it as a hemangioma, or an abnormal buildup of blood vessels in the skin or internal organs, but the Whites knew it was more than that. They were referred to a specialist, who diagnosed their daughter as having premature thelarche (breast development) and told them to watch it closely. By age 6 they noticed she had body odor after playing and she began to use deodorant as part of her daily regimen.
"Sarah wasn't getting much taller, but suddenly, just after her 8th birthday, her breasts developed, waist nipped in and hips broadened and some secondary puberty symptoms appeared," White says. "We've run a gamut of emotions, from frustration just to get a doctor to hear us to restlessness over yet again being told wait and see, to incredible guilt on my part because I felt it was my genes causing this, therefore my fault." (Heredity does play a part in precocious puberty, but it is not the only part.)
Sharon Stidham, a mother from Springfield, Ill., understands that frustration all too well. Her daughter was barely 6 when she came to her and said, "Mommy, there's a nickel under my nipple."
"I quizzed her about what she was saying, and then took a very deep breath," Stidham says. "I was not in any way, shape or form prepared for this so soon. At that time, I told her I was proud of her for coming to me, and that we would discuss it with the doctor, and that she should tell me if anything changed."
