Our Child is Going Through Early Puberty

I never knew it was possible for a girl to start puberty early, but it’s an actual dilemma. Today I’m sharing a very personal story of how our daughter is going through early puberty.

*Warning: This post contains sensitive information about children’s health. When we started this journey so many years ago, I could not find any real life stories about girls experiencing early puberty online. There was nothing but medical reports and formal studies about Precocious Puberty. Not only has this journey been stressful on my daughter, but it’s always been difficult to navigate as her parents. With my oldest daughters’ permission, I share her story.

How We Discovered Our Daughter was Going Through Early Puberty

The first time I questioned my daughters’ physical development was at the very young age of two years old. Why does my toddler have noticeable tiny breasts? I loved our pediatrician in Georgia, but she was confused by our daughters’ apparent breasts. She referred us to a hormone disorder specialist in Atlanta called a Pediatric Endocrinologist. I remember being so scared something was wrong with our daughter.

Why does my two year old have breasts?

According to the Pediatric Endocrinologist, babies and toddlers may have small, disc-shaped lumps felt under the nipple and areola called breast buds. In girls, breast buds grow bigger during the first 6 to 18 months of life, but usually regress (grow softer) by 2 years of age (source). Since our daughter was a little older than 2 years old, the doctor offered a few explanations for toddler breast buds: excess estrogen, obesity, diet, or the overuse of lavender products.

The Pediatric Endocrinologist didn’t want to torture our toddler with bloodwork and testing right away. She was a seemingly healthy, tall, thin two year old without any other symptoms – just breast buds. After altering her diet – goodbye soy sausages and Chik-Fil-A – and throwing away all of our lavender lotion, we noticed her breast buds disappear. We put the mystery health scare in our past and moved on with life.

What is Premature Thelarche?

When we moved to Connecticut five years later, my daughter approached me with a strange ailment one day. She had a painful lump in her breast that felt hot to the touch. We immediately called her pediatrician for an examination and quickly learned she had developed breast buds – again. Our daughters’ doctor mentioned the words premature thelarche and early puberty. Then she sent us off to Yale Pediatric Endocrinology. They are one of the nation’s most respected sections in endocrinology, with faculty made of experts in the clinical management of endocrine and metabolic disorders.

My first piece of advice if you are reading this post because your daughter has breast buds at an early age is to avoid Google. I made the mistake of googling reasons for premature thelarche and early puberty in girls – and the results were a little frightening. I decided to let the expert perform an examination before I made any type of personal diagnosis.

The cause of premature thelarche is often unknown, but the condition may be from sensitivity to estrogen, or a symptom of hormonal imbalances in the adrenal glands or ovaries. Premature thelarche can also be associated with early puberty. Puberty that happens early is called precocious puberty. There are many causes of early puberty, most of which are diagnosed by a variety of tests (source).

The Fancy Name for Early Puberty is Precocious Puberty

If a six year old girl shows signs of breast development, this can mark the beginning of puberty. Puberty is a slow development though and typically breast size is not significant. Our daughter’s breast size measured that of an 8 or 9 year old, so she was diagnosed with premature thelarche at her first endocrinologist appointment.

The Pediatric Endocrinologist needed to determine if our six year old was in early puberty. She ordered bloodwork to determine hormone levels and an X-ray of her left hand wrist to measure bone age. Within a week we learned her hormone levels were normal, but her bone age was measuring 9 months ahead. We decided to monitor her development every 3-4 months moving forward.

Our Daughter Has Precocious Puberty

Fast forward three more years – our nine year old has an official diagnosis of Precocious Puberty. There are many symptoms of precocious puberty our daughter was not even exhibiting by age 8, such as pubic/underarm hair. However, her breast growth was increasing at a rapid pace. She was also showing symptoms reminiscent of my own personal experiences with pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS). I wrote about her mood swings here, but we never thought they were a sign of anything truly progressing.

• Mood swings
• Sweating
• Sadness
• Anxiety
• Food cravings + increased appetite
• Pimples

We ultimately realized she was going into early puberty when she started showing signs of menstruation. I cannot describe my emotions when I learned my third grader was starting puberty a few years earlier than she should be. Our family as a whole has been in shock, overwhelmed, and saddened by the diagnosis.

Why are you upset your daughter is going through puberty at an early age? This question has been asked more times than I can count – and once I explain, the person’s tone always changes. When explaining menstruation to my daughter, how women experience this change so their bodies can someday have a baby, she burst into tears. “I don’t want to have a baby until I’m 30! Why does my body need to get ready now?”

What causes precocious puberty?

Precocious Puberty may be caused by tumors or growths on the ovaries, adrenal glands, pituitary gland, or brain. Other causes may include central nervous system problems, family history of the condition, or certain rare genetic syndromes. In many cases, no cause can be found for the disorder. In our case – we don’t know why it’s happening.

My nine year old, who believes in fairies, Santa, and leprechauns, needs to be reminded to brush her hair and teeth most mornings. She is a young 9 year old and nowhere near ready to handle a monthly period. She also has severe health anxiety from early dental trauma, so the endocrinology testing appointments have been difficult. The onset of early puberty has caused intense overwhelming emotions amplifying feelings she already had about growing up early.

Others noticed her breast development early on, so she started wearing a training bra. She’s had to wear deodorant and use grown up face wash for her sensitive skin. She sprouted out of her favorite outfits in just a few weeks. While she wanted to continue wearing her skirts and shorts, I had to explain how one doesn’t wear things that are too short or too tight as one gets older. Our daughter told us she is uncomfortable in her own body – and that’s the last feeling I ever want my daughter to feel.

“Early puberty is associated with a daunting list of adverse physical and psychological outcomes: various studies have suggested that early-maturing girls are at greater risk for developing obesity, breast cancer, eating disorders, depression, and a range of behavioral issues (source).”

To preserve our daughters’ mental health and to allow her to continue growing taller, we are pausing our her development. We want her to feel comfortable in her body and emotionally ready for puberty to happen at the right time. Our daughter has been distraught for months, worried about other’s noticing her physical changes and not feeling like herself. Next week we will take the next steps to block puberty and the procedure can’t come soon enough.