Three factors to promote children’s precocious puberty

        It is understood that the average incidence of precocious puberty in Chinese children has reached 1%, and the rate of increase is fast.  Modern children’s nutritional status is better than before, and the general advancement of puberty in this case is normal, but it must be noted that there should be a limit, and excessive advancement is “precocious puberty”. Generally speaking, a sudden jump in size before the age of 10; especially the appearance of various ‘secondary sexual characteristics’, can be considered as a diagnostic criterion for precocious puberty. In addition, if pubic hair grows, vaginal discharge increases in girls, and boys grow throat knots and begin to change their voices, these are also signs of early puberty and should be taken seriously.  The reason why more and more children are getting “precocious puberty” is mainly related to the exposure to too many exogenous sex hormones, currently, due to environmental pollution and other factors, children’s exposure to sex hormone substances is greatly increased. First of all, eating poultry, anti-seasonal fruits and vegetables with added sex hormones will increase the risk of getting the disease; and supplements containing sex hormones or sex hormone analogues may also cause “precocious puberty”, and some children may even have “precocious puberty” due to taking birth control pills by mistake. Secondly, mothers’ cosmetics must be stored properly, preferably out of the reach of children, not to mention let children get them at will, otherwise they will also increase the risk of getting diseases. Finally, premature exposure to “inappropriate” love scenes and various related information in movies and TV programs can also stimulate the child’s cerebral cortex, which in turn will activate the hypothalamus that controls puberty development. In addition, excessive light may be one of the causes of precocious puberty in children, because light affects the normal work of the endocrine organ in the brain, the pineal gland, which in turn inhibits the secretion of melatonin, leading to early secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone, resulting in precocious puberty. Therefore, children should not be exposed to light for too long.  The children with “precocious puberty” grow up with premature physical growth, early epiphyseal fusion, shortened growth period, early growth stop, resulting in a lower final height than their peers who develop according to normal puberty, thus bringing psychological barriers to the children and affecting their healthy personality development. There are also some cases of “precocious puberty” that may be caused by tumors, which may delay the treatment of the disease if they are not seen in time.  If the condition is diagnosed after sex hormone level, bone age and ultrasound examination, it should be treated actively. At the same time, parents should pay special attention to give their children some relevant knowledge to help them adapt to the changes in their bodies as soon as possible, in order to prevent shadows in their minds.