My beloved child grows up before his time. It can be a threat to health in the future.

My beloved child grows up before his time. It can be a threat to health in the future.

Everyone grows up every year. some people might not want to be grown up because the duty and burden will get more as they grow up. While someone wants to grow up quickly for many reasons. But did you know that growing up too early can also cause negative effects on your health. This article will provide the new age parents knowledge of “Early Puberty” in children, that seems to be a good thing but it causes bad effects to them. 

Early Puberty is the condition that children reach the age of puberty and have physically changes before the age of 8 years old, even though girl will enter to adolescent age at 8-13 years old and boys will become pubescent at 9-14 years old, causing the body to have the bone that older than actual age and suddenly pause in height growing. These problem can be found in the girl 10 times more than the boy, which is caused by:

- Internal factor from genetics that mother has menstruation before the age of 12 years old and father that experienced the precocious puberty or illness from tumor , including malfunction of ovary or testicle that also affected the condition. 

- External factors such as taking higher estrogen than the usual quantity from eating the food, getting too much nutrients so it causes Obesity , which have the higher risk of getting precocious puberty than thin shaped children. 

Sign of early puberty in children

          Girl : May found the development of the breast before 8 years old, acne, oily face similar to the teen, hair on the pubis , body odor, widened thigh, early menstruation before 9 years old and rapidly height growth, which is grower than classmate in the same age.

          Boys: Have development of the genital before 9 years old, hair on the pubis, oily face, cracked and deepened tone sound, body odor and importantly, the height is increased 5-6 centimeters yearly, which is the primary sign for the parents to be clearly observed. 

Impacts from early puberty

          Physically impact

- The higher amount of sex hormones than usual causes the growth of children.

          - Rapidly increasing of the height

          - Bone age is higher than actual age and the height growth will stop due to early closure of the bone, causing negative effects on the final height.

Mentally impact

- Not understand to the condition and thinking that early growth is an issue.

- May have aggressive behavior and emotion and sexual needs at an early age. 

- Girls may have problems in taking care of self hygiene because of sudden occurrence of menstruation. 

          - Feel isolated from friends or classmates of the same age. 

Evaluation if the kids suspected to have early puberty

          When the warning sign of the body is detected, It’s recommended to take your children to visit the doctor for diagnosis. Which can be done by these following options : 

          1.Bone age x-ray

Usually, the bone will have the shape and jointing that changed from aging, so it can be evaluated with wrist bone x-ray of the non-dominant hand and compared to average child’s bone if it advanced from the actual age and if being in early puberty. 

          2. Pelvic Ultrasonography

It can diagnose the condition of early puberty that is caused by ovarian cysts and tumors and tumors at adrenal glands. It found the womb longer than 34 millimeters in children with conditions of early age and thickened endometrial tissue. 

          3.Androgen and estrogen levels blood test

By testing with GnRH Stimulation Test in children with early puberty, which can be detected if the sex hormones are higher than standard level.

After the evaluation, if it detected the sign of early puberty and still can be treated. The doctor may consider administering the anti-hormone medication to the muscle for every 1-3 months until the age of 11-12 years old and assessment of the age of bone for every 6-12 months to monitor the bone closure. Children with early puberty may return to a more gradual growth pattern. In girls, it can be clearly observed from reduced breast size and onset of the first menstruation after approximately 1 year after taking an anti-hormone medication.