My oldest is seven. A couple of months ago we became concerned that she was showing signs of early puberty. When the doctor examined her she said that she is in very early puberty and probably around two years away from starting her period. The thought of a nine year old having periods is, to me, terrible. If hers are like mine were and can still be at times she'll have to deal with horrible cramps and sometimes vomiting. I was 13 when my started and I would have to miss school because it would be so bad. I still remember laying in the bathroom floor and crying because of the pain and nausea. They won't do anything to surpress it because 8 to 9 is now the average age for girls to start their periods. From what I found on PubMed they are attributing it to steroids used in meats as well as things found in the drinking water, such as estrogen from birth control pills.

Well, today she was playing her younger siblings and was sitting the sunlight. I looked at her and realized that it looks like she's getting acne already. My brothers and sister had horrible acne--they had to take meds for it, tried all kinds of ointments and face washes and my brothers have a couple of scars from acne. She looks like she's getting a pretty good patch of it on one cheek. I'm going to by some hypoallergenic face wash or a bar of Ivory soap and make her start washing her face twice per day. She is just too young for this. My MIL started her period at around 9 and was pretty much fully developed by 11 or 12 so the doctor said it's just that she's taking after that side of the family. I hate it, though. That's too young for such grown up things and kids can be so cruel to girls like that. I also know symptoms of bipolar can show up during puberty so that's another worry we have.

I'm just so freaked out to see my seven year old starting to deal with puberty. It's just too young but as I said--they won't do anything to delay it.