Early puberty: Why six-year-old girls are starting to look like teenagers

Archana, a mother of a six-year-old girl, notices an unusually significant change in her daughter’s body, leaving her very worried.

“I’m afraid to see this at such a young age. He’s starting to get angry because of the little cans. These changes worry me,” he said.

Archana (not her real name) lives with her family in a village in the Satara district of western India.

They live in a small house they built on a farm with her husband and two children, a son and an older daughter.

Wen Archana’s daughter begins to look older than her thousand years, and then she decides to carry it and go to the doctor.

Meanwhile, Rashi also lives in Delhi and sees changes in her daughter’s body, but does not think they are normal.

Her six-year-old daughter weighs 1000 40 kilos and considers herself her “healthy child”.

But one day Rashi’s daughter suddenly complains of bleeding.

After going to the doctor, they learn that their daughter has started menstruating.

“This is very difficult for us to accept. My daughter cannot understand what is happening to her,” Rashi tok said.

At the same time, a local doctor advises Archana to consult a gynecologist.

Dr Sushil Garud said, “Wen Archana brought her daughter to us, after examination, we found that she showed all the signs of puberty. Her body structure is like that of a 14 to 15-year-old teenager and menstruation can start at any time.” For Maternity Hospital, Pune for tok.

Dr Garud said the girl’s hormone levels were much higher than normal for her age and there were many reasons for this.

“Archana told me that they had two 5kg boxes of pesticides that they kept for her house and that her daughter always played around them. So this is one of the main reasons for the change in the girl’s hormones,” said Dr Tok.

Dr Garud names early changes in children such as precocious puberty or precocious puberty.

Puberty continues with changes in the body of the boy or girl, the sexual organs develop and adapt or become beautiful.

Most boys grow facial and pubic hair and have deep bass voices. In most girls, pubic hair and breasts grow and the dia period begins.

It is normal for puberty to begin between the ages of 8 and 13 in girls and between the ages of 9 and 14 in boys.

Dr. is a pediatrician and adolescent endocrinologist who specializes in hormone-related diseases. Vaishakhi Rustegi says she has not noticed any change in girls in the last few years.

“We’re seeing girls start menstruating 18 months to three years after the first signs of physical changes appear. Girls are now menstruating within three to four months,” he told the BBC.

He says boys now start growing bi-bias within one to 1.5 years of the onset of puberty, whereas in the past this took up to four years.

Dr. from the Child Health Research Division of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Suchitra Surve says that in her study, there is an increase in cases of early puberty.

A study of 2,000 girls by the National Institute for Research on Reproductive and Child Health (ICMR-NIRRCH) found that mothers often fail to recognize the signs of puberty.

The organization does not investigate the causes and risks associated with early puberty in girls under the age of nine.

For 2020, Mumbai Di Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital and ICMR are collaborating on an early puberty camp for girls aged six to nine years.

Dr Sudha Rau, who works in the pediatric department of a hospital, said, “Sixty girls aged between six and nine do not enter early puberty and some of them can go through dia periods at any time.”

Doctors say there are many causes of early puberty, and studies continue to suggest no single cause is feasible.

Participants think that pesticides, preservatives, pollution and obesity, which they claim are used in food, are among the potential causes.

Researching the problem among girls for Mumbai, Dr. Prashant Patil says obesity is one of the biggest risk factors for early pubertal development and this problem has not contributed to the rise of obesity in children during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 390 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 will be overweight by 2022; 160 million of them will live with obesity.

Chronic complex disease characterized by obesity and excess fat accumulation harms health.

They measure by looking at body mass index (BMI); They include the child or young person’s gender, age, weight and height at birth.

We can say that excessive use of mobile phones, television or room screens and lack of exercise are also among the potential risk factors.

Dr Vaisakhi tok said that for the last two or three years, five to six cases of menstruation have been reported every day in girls attending the outpatient department.

“I am also getting cases where mothers say they noticed changes in April and girls started menstruating in June-July. Now cases are also appearing in boys,” he said.

He says screen time also indirectly affects early adolescence.

Both daughters Archana and Rashi are undergoing treatment to delay their diaphragm periods until they are at least 10 or 11 years old.

Doctors say that girls today are not mature enough to take care of themselves and clean themselves during their periods.

Both doctors say that girls who experience early puberty may experience psychosocial problems.

Research does not reveal that these girls experience lifelong body image issues and are bullied by their peers for their early body changes.