A week-long series on the changing face of childhood.
Claudia and Joe’s baby girl has been racing to grow up, almost from the moment she was born. Laila sat up on her own at 5 months old and began talking at 7 months and walking by 8½ months.
“All of our friends told us to cherish every moment,” Claudia says. “When I started planning her first birthday party, I remember crying and wondering where the time had gone.”
It is extremely unlikely that a girl with body odor at 3 and puberty at 6 is the result of any of the things mentioned in the article — diet, chemicals in food, etc. I would bet a huge sum of money that this is a specific genetic defect in that particular girl. This is actually a pretty dangerous and misleading article since it suggests that such an extreme premature puberty is just part of the general moving up of the age of puberty in our society. Parents (and sometimes even doctors) read this and somehow develop the idea that “this is just the way things are these days.” Puberty at 6 (or 9 for that matter) is never “just the way things are” and is always the result of a hormonal/biochemical defect. And throwing in this stuff about sitting up at 5 months and walking at eight and half months is just dragging more red herrings into the story. If your kid starts producing body odor at 3 you need to get to an endocrinologist fast.
Not too bad of a discussion, considering the fact that the reasons for this are, as yet, unknown.
I’ve long believed that the cause is some as-yet-undetermined interplay of hormones(especially estrogen) and body-fat stores.
At times the author discusses “nutrition” without speaking to the actual weight/BMI of the subjects. “Nutrition” is one thing; “over-nutrition” is another.
Luckily there was an alternative treatment as the child in question was “afraid of needles”–fact is, if you need the treatment, needles or not, you need it. The “minor surgical procedure” for the implant involves needles, too; in the form of an IV or at least a sedative shot.
Parents cannot be encouraged strongly enough to help their kids maintain a normal BMI for age.
It will be interesting to see if these “early puberty” girls also end up with early menopause. Best to nip it in the bud now, before these girls are told at the age of ~ 30 that their biological clocks have stopped. A tough row to hoe…