Precocious Puberty: Kids Reaching Puberty Before Age 7 - A Preventive Plan for Parents

While puberty used to occur around age 15 or 16, it has been occurring at younger ages over the last few decades. New research shows that girls (and boys) in the U.S. are now developing earlier than ever, a possible trend that is associated with a number of health risks along with exposing them to changes in their bodies that they are not emotionally ready to deal with the changes at their young age.

 

What is Precocious Puberty?

Precocious puberty refers to the appearance of physical and hormonal signs of pubertal development at an earlier age than is considered normal. For many years, puberty was considered precocious in girls younger than 8 years; however, recent studies indicate that signs of early puberty (breasts and pubic hair) are often present in girls aged 6-8 years. For boys, onset of puberty before age 9 years is considered precocious. Recent research found that 10% of 7-year-old girls had some breast development as compared to 5% in a study published in 1997.

 

What's Causing Precocious Puberty?

Scientists have brought forth a number of potential explanations, and in all likelihood it's a combination of following factors:

• Hormones in food - The FDA currently allows six different kinds of steroid hormones to be used in food production.
• Obesity (especially due to above-average weight gain during infancy) - Estrogen is stored in fat tissue. An increase or imbalance in estrogen can lead to an increased risk of developing breast cancer or endometrial cancer.
• Phthalates in plastics and cosmetics - Environmental exposure to estrogens in plastics has increased. Commonly used plastic chemicals, such as bisphenol A and phthalates disrupt the human endocrine system and negatively affect your hormones.

  

About Dr. Landa
Dr. Jennifer Landa earned her medical degree from Albany Medical College of Union University in Albany, NY in 1996. She completed her internship and residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC, where she was distinguished as the Administrative Chief Resident in OB/GYN. Dr. Landa is Board Certified by the American Board of of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine and serves as anAdvanced Fellow in the Fellowship for Anti-Aging, Regenerative and Functional Medicine. In addition, Dr. Landa has made appearances on a number of nationally-syndicated television shows, and was featured in a cover story by Florida Trend magazine in December of 2009, as a leading expert in anti-aging medicine.