For this week’s blog, I want to talk about precocious puberty occurring in little girls. Precocious puberty means having the signs of puberty earlier than usual. It is never easy to be at the age around 13 because the kids are experiencing physical changes. It was at least predictable that little girls would slowly begin the transition to teen years around after age of 11 or 12. However, some studies show that American girls are hitting puberty earlier these days than they did just a decade ago. I do not think it is only happening in America. I see many little girls in Korea with developed breast, having first menstruation, rapid growth in their early ages.I think the childhood obesity is one of the leading factors because fat can produce sex hormones. Along with fatty tissue that may increase sex hormones, agricultural hormones found in meat and dairy products are also problems. My boyfriend and I often talk about using plastics in our daily life. He is very sensitive about using plastics for food. He always says that it may not bring any harm on me but might bring negative influence on babies. Those industrial chemicals block or interfere with the function of hormones. There may be other environmental factors as well but what is so clear about this issue is that it is becoming a serious.
No matter what the causes are, being different from their peers may be the most stressful issue for little girls. They may be teased, and may have self-esteem problems. Girls may enter into dating and sexual activity earlier as well. If these problems occur, I think it is essential to help them through the difficult time and let them understand that everyone will go through the same changes. Some studies even show that there may be a relationship between early puberty and high risk breast cancer. This topic may be easily ignored because not many people are aware of it. However, I think it is an important problem in some parts of the world.
Do you consider it as a serious problem or just a trivial issue?
That is kind of scary when you think about it. You hear so many stories now a day’s that talk about early development. This one girl started her first period at age nine. It is mostly probably from the milk and meat given to little girls early in life. Factories put in random hormones in the food. It's weird and gross that they do that. I know it’s to preserve food or whatever. But, if people eat organic and natural food it might decrease the early development rate of young girls. The moms that are breast feeding they’re infants should take great care of what they are putting in their bodies. It could help in the long run.
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