Puberty and hormones

[Live Free]

I was talking to a mother the other day and she was saying how her daughter was reaching puberty at 9 years old. Yikes!!

I asked her if her daughter drank cows milk. She says yes. She agreed with me that having her daughter drink cows milk with all the hormones has made her daughter mature sooner. I have heard this sort of thing a lot and I dont like the fact that girls are reaching puberty at younger and younger ages.

I will try my hardest to keep my baby away from any foods that have hormones injected into it.

I gave this mother some alternatives for her daughter to consume to get the calcium that she needs instead of drinking the cows milk. The other mother that was there was giving her daughter a prescription to slow down her puberty. Double Yikes!!

This is so outrageous to me. I can not believe this thing can be allowed in this country. Just wait til I get to Washington, Watch out!! :)

Does anyone have any thoughts on this subject? Does anyone have any knowledge where a girl grew up on a raw foods or vegan diet and she didnt mature earlier than necessary?

Teresa and Mae

[dreamrawalwz]

Yea, i've noticed that too. More milk and animal products are being consumed, the average person is getting larger, girls are hitting puberty much sooner because of a higher weight and the propper amount of fat TO start puberty...see a pattern here!? There certainly IS a connection, if only we could get the rest of the public to see this...

[rawjanny]

My daughter's diet was vegetarian with minimal dairy (this included only limited amounts organic/hormone-free cheese and yogurt, never milk as a beverage) as was my diet during pregnancy. Though her development began at 13, full puberty held off until 14. This was much later than her friends, many of them experienced puberty while still in elementary school.

She also has lovely skin and only an occasional blemish, which may also have something to do with eliminating the hormones.

[Bobbi Kay]

My daughter is 8 and approaching puberty very fast. She does not drink a lot of milk or eat a lot of meat. She does eat the SAD. I had to sit and have the puberty TALK with her the other day. So weird. I talked to her about how changing her diet will help delay the onset of puberty and she was all for it...until it came to actually not eating a hamburger. She has seen me eat a healthy diet most of her life and will usually try what I am eating. But has very different diet tastes than I do. She eats just like her birth mom.

[Autumn]

I had started full menstruation (not just spotting) at age 10. By 12 I was wearing a C-cup. I had never heard of the SAD diet link to early puberty until I started researching PCOS, after I was diagnosed.

I do remember reading a long time ago that girls were maturing earlier, but the many articles I read about all viewed this in a *positive* light. They cited *better* nutrition, healthcare and sanitary practices as the reason. I've also wondered why girls often didn't reach puberty until 16 or 17 many years ago, but again, didn't make the SAD link. And, it wasn't until many years later that I read (and agreed) that early puberty is not beneficial to anyone.

No wonder young girls today are so incredibly body concious and confused. To me a 10, 11 or 12 year old girl is a *child*, not someone who should have to start thinking/wondering/worrying about becoming a woman. I remember being mortified as a child that I was so developed, and for a year I bound my breasts with undershirts so no one would know. I even heard an adult make an ugly remark about me being promiscious, all because I was an 'early bloomer'. :(

I hope as more young people are turning to vegetarianism, veganism and raw foods, that we will start to see a reverse in early puberty, as well as teenage sex, unwanted pregnancy and all the emotional and body-image problems and ED's that come with it.

[Bobbi Kay]

I totally agree Autumn.

[Faithfullyfit]

Good Morning everyone-
As a mother of an almost 8 year old daughter, who is showing signs of early puberty, I must share another thought to ponder. Due to an inabilty to breastfeed my daughter and her Lactose issues as an infant -she was switched to a soy based formula. At the age of 1 she began drinking cows milk with no problem-and she could drink her weight in it-In my own fear of the hormones and antibiotics of commercial milk-I switched to limited amounts of organic and l pushed Soy milk as an alternative whenever possible. Within the past year and my own research of the phyto-estrogens in Soy creating more hormonal problems for women made me take a closer look. By giving my daughter soy, soy, soy I have made her estrogen levels dominant at 7 years old....YIKES! There is also a very clear link to children who are fed soybased infant formula being Hypo Thyroid. So, I would suggest mothers of daughters to look a this link carefully before assuming Soy is a GREAT alternative like I did- Can't go wrong with water, natural juices and nut milks :)
Take Care

[Punky]

I gave this mother some alternatives for her daughter to consume to get the calcium that she needs instead of drinking the cows milk. The other mother that was there was giving her daughter a prescription to slow down her puberty. Double Yikes!!

This is so outrageous to me. I can not believe this thing can be allowed in this country. Just wait til I get to Washington, Watch out!! :)



I can't believe there is a prescription to slow down puberty; wouldn't you switch to hormone free organic dairy, dairy alternative and organic hormone free meats before a prescription?!?!? Ok, I AM being judgemental, I just never have heard of such a thing. Whoa.
Yes, I agree, all the shi_ they feed animals like hormones, antibiotics
bring health concerns to people. I totally agree the early puberty in girls can be contributed to the SAD food.
What about boys? I never hear anything about it affecting boys? just curious.

[Halo Aglow]

I'm like Autumn, I got my first period when I was either 9 or 10, it was when I was in the 4th grade. There was another girl who got hers at that age too because I remember having to tell her she had a lot of blood on her pants around her bottom. She was more developed than I was.

I remember this one girl who KEPT on bothering me about whether I started my period or not from the way I was developed... geez that girl got on my nerves. I of course was embarrassed and lied about not having it yet.

Before all that though, when I started to develop breast tissue, it would hurt when I would lean my chest up against the table when sitting down. I told my mom about it, who of course told my dad, who of course told my grandma who was visiting at the time. I had to go through them pinching and feeling my nipple area to see what I was talking about, a little ball in there. They were worried that it could be cancer! Which of course had me worried. Then I had to go to 2 different types of doctors. First was male who said it was just breast tissue but wanted to be sure so he sent me to a female doctor and she confirmed it was just breast tissue. But I obviously was very young for that since my parents were totally freaked out about it.

I LOVED drinking milk when I was kid. And I honestly believe that is the reason why I developed so quick. It was a horrible time in my life though, because my periods were always so painful and I misssed so much school. Painful like going into labor, which I can now say I know from first hand! I use to tell people that and they didn't believe me and would say, "I doubt your periods hurt as much as going into labor. You don't know what going into labor feels like! It HURTS!!" Yeah, and my periods HURT!!! I believe because I was use to that type of pain every dang month, that is the reason why I didn't need any anesthesia when giving birth.

About soy, and I am glad someone brought this up, one time I got soy happy and was drinking soy milk like plain water. I ended up getting my period a whole 2 week early!! Of course I only found out AFTER THE FACT that soy can change a woman's menstrual cycle. I do believe it was the soy that caused my cycle to come early.

[ReneeSC]

http://www.mercola.com/2005/feb/26/soy_myths.htm

I was informed of this too late, unfortunately. I'll spare the details.
I had an inkling something was wrong with it, though, and quit.
My husband just had a ranting fit about it when I tried to tell him about soy troubles - "One says one thing, one says another!" Yeah, but.. the ones who said it was once so good for you didn't think even manufacturers would put in in EVERYthing they make now. It's a "filler" food industrially.

Punky asked if there were any effects on boys and their puberty: The studies show it decelerates it rather than accelerates as in females.

http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_story.html

http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/earlymenarchy.htm

[Faithfullyfit]

Good Morning!

With the SOY...It is like so many things- when we hear that a little is good we think alot must be better!!!!- We usually learn that is not the case. I do believe it has some benefit but used with caution. Remember Soy is given to Swine to fatten them up quickly at a low cost to get them ready for slaughter-yuck!

In response to a question about the effects on Boys- I wanted to refer to a web site that list some references to this issue. It is also a very informative site on other health related topics. http://www.mercola.com/forms/whole_soy_story.htm

I am working toward a Vegan diet for my kids- I think it offers the best health support available. No hormones or Antibiotics to worry about.I would love them to be RAW but, that will take some time :)

I will check out the other posts regarding children and a Raw diet! Have a GREAT day.

Take Care

[dreamrawalwz]

I'm definitly no expert, but it slowing down puberty in boys makes complete sense to me. If it increases estrogen in girls, it must do the same to boys causing the ratio of testosterone and estrogen to become unbalanced. Less testosterone = slower puberty.

[Carlene]

This deals with the other end of this spectrum, but if I eat non-organic meat my hormone levels skyrocket. Menopause came early for me, but give me two weeks of eating SAD meat and periods are a part of my life. That must be pretty strong stuff they pump into those cows to affect my body so quickly. I have actually experimented with this to prove it to skeptics in my family. It's like clockwork.