Early Puberty: What you can do to protect your daughter(s)

If you have a daughter, the trend of girls developing breasts and pubic hair earlier is something you should be concerned about. This issue of early puberty has been in the news more frequently and the National Institute of Health is now funding several major longitudinal research projects to determine why it is happening.

On average, Caucasian girls are developing breasts and pubic hair one year earlier than is considered normal and African American girls are developing an average of two years earlier. This may not seem like a big deal, but this earlier development has major social, psychological and biological consequences (ie. higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer and low self-esteem to name just a few).

There is no definitive answer as to what is causing girls to develop earlier, but several factors are being investigated. Until an answer is found, researchers are urging parents with daughters to do the following:

1) Feed your children organic/hormone free meat and dairy products. Animals are fed hormones to make then grow faster and bigger and hit puberty themselves earlier. It makes sense that by eating these animals, we could potentially be doing the same to our children.

2) Limit the amount of sugar your children eat. It is suspected that obesity may play a role in early puberty. Eat from the farm not the factory...fresh fruits and vegetables and organic/hormone free meats and dairy products is the way to go.

3) Limit the use of personal care products, particularly sunscreen. These products contain all kinds of chemicals any one of which could be contributing to the problem.

4) Use stainless steel water bottles instead of plastic and NEVER microwave food in plastic containers. When plastic is heated or cooled beyond certain temperature, chemicals leech out and it is not known what effects these chemicals are having on our bodies.

This issue is very alarming to me as it should be to anyone raising a girl. Despite the fact that it is becoming more common, it is NOT NORMAL for children to develop breasts and pubic hair at the young ages of 7 or 8. If taking these small steps could potentially help my daughter in the long run, I am totally willing to take them even if it does turn out that one or all of them are not the cause. It is just not a risk I am willing to take. Sadly, an answer to this problem may not be found in our lifetime, but my daughter is not going to be part of the experiment.

Band-Aids and 9-Month Olds Don't Mix

My daughter is a left-thumb sucker. She absolutely refuses to suck her right one. This recently became a major problem when she sliced open the top of her left thumb with her two bottom teeth. At first, it was just a tiny cut and we hoped it would heal on its own, but because she is an avid left-thumb sucker, it continued to get bigger and deeper. After the ordeal we have been through over the last few days, I regret not taking action earlier.

At first we tried to bandage it up with a little Vaseline while she was awake. I didn't want her to have a band-aid on her thumb while she slept in case she managed to suck it off and choke on it. Anyway, because she was still able to suck it when she slept, it was just not healing. We tried several different types of band-aids and tape in an attempt to get something that would stick and that we would feel comfortable leaving on while she slept, but she is would just keep pulling off whatever we put on.

Finally, drastic measures were necessary and I had a brainwave! I decided to sew a sock to the sleeve of a onesie. This way, I could put a band aid on her finger and she wouldn't be able to get it off while she slept. The finger would be off-limits and would start to heal. I knew that this scenario was going to cause major problems in the falling-to-sleep department, but we had to do what we had to do.

Lilah SCREAMED the first night we put the 'torture oneie' on her. She was just so upset that she could not suck her thumb to put herself to sleep. It took 40 minutes to get her to sleep that first night (she normally falls asleep on her own). The next day, she refused to take a morning nap altogether and getting her to sleep in the afternoon was really tough. I decided at this point, to go out and buy a soother. She has never had a soother before (other than on the plane) and I certainly didn't want her to get in the habit of needing one, but she needed to sleep. Post-soother, it has been much easier to get her to sleep at night, but naps are still a major challenge (today she refused to take a morning nap again).

This finger is taking longer to heal that I hoped, but we are optimistic she will be able to have her thumb back tomorrow. I fear that we have totally screwed up her ability to fall asleep on her own though and are going to have a few rough days and nights getting that back.

The moral of the story...try to teach your baby not to rely on only one method of self-soothing, just in case and get on even the smallest of injury as soon as possible rather than waiting until drastic measures are necessary because band-aids and 9-moths olds don't mix.