How to deal with early sexual maturity in children

      In recent years, the incidence of precocious puberty in children has increased significantly. With the improvement of people’s living standard, the developmental growth of children is also advanced. There is no clinical conclusion on how to distinguish precocious sexual development from normal development, and the debate is over the age limit. The same age criteria cannot be used for children in urban and rural areas, developed and developing countries. There is a consensus that girls with breast development, increased vaginal discharge, pubic and axillary hair, and menstruation before the age of 8 and boys with testicular development, penis enlargement, pubic hair and beard, voice change, and even sperm discharge before the age of 9 are diagnosed with precocious puberty.     So, what causes the rising incidence of precocious puberty? According to Sun Yan, a pediatrician at Beijing Children’s Hospital, the factors that cause precocious puberty in children are complex and varied, and may be related to a variety of factors: ⒈ growth and development of the accelerated trend. Due to the improvement of living standards, improved nutrition and fewer diseases, the sexual development and sexual maturity of this generation of children is advanced. ⒉Environmental pollution impact. Foreign literature reports that substances discharged into the environment by the washing, pesticide, and plastic industries and their decomposition products can produce environmental hormone-like pollutants, all of which have been found to have estrogenic activity and are absorbed through water, food, and skin, becoming the cause of the promotion of pseudosexual precociousness and true sexual precociousness. Ingesting foods or drugs containing sex hormones. Many parents now give their children items containing large amounts of sex hormones, such as ginseng, royal jelly, pollen, chicken embryos, and silkworm pupae. Singing the influence of psychosocial factors. There is a significant increase in sex-related content on TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, etc. Some children are exposed to images of behavior beyond their psychological age from movies and television at an early age. Be careful about the influence of disease. Factors such as intracranial tumors, adrenal gland disease, thyroid disease, heredity, ovarian disease, liver disease, etc. may cause precocious puberty in children.    Because of the early growth and epiphyseal closure, children with precocious puberty enter puberty early because of precocious puberty, even though they are taller than children of the same age. This means that the puberty period is shortened and the child does not have enough time to develop and eventually becomes shorter than the average person. Children with precocious puberty often have low self-esteem, fear and anxiety because they feel different from their peers due to the changes in their bodies, especially girls who have premature menstruation are often very nervous, which affects their normal life and studies.    Sun Yan reminded the parents of the patients: the earlier the treatment of precocious puberty in children, the better the effect, do not avoid the disease, so as not to miss the best time for treatment. In addition, supplemented by diet and exercise, eat less greasy food, less sweets, more fruits and vegetables; avoid eating tonic nutrients containing sex hormones; careful use of hormonal drugs, to avoid obesity. Pay attention to psychological counseling for children, avoid contact with sex-related images or footage. Keep enough sleep, strengthen physical exercise, especially the lower limbs to promote the division and proliferation of skeletal cartilage tissue, in order to facilitate height growth.