Survey says Chinese children’s sexual development is 1 year earlier Girl’s breasts get bigger at 9 years old Children’s sexual development is ahead of schedule “My daughter is just a little over 9 and a half years old and her breasts are getting bigger, is it precocious?” “My daughter had her menarche at the age of 12, is it because of food?” Many parents are a little worried when they see the changes in their children’s bodies, but after consulting with the hospital, they find that these conditions are normal. The epidemiological survey of the National 11th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Support was recently released, and the data showed that the time of children’s sexual development has advanced again, from the original common belief that development starts at the age of 11 to 12, to an average of 9 or 7 years old for girls and 11 or 3 years old for boys. This is a data from a joint survey of several pediatric endocrine treatment centers nationwide, which basically reflects the current situation of children’s sexual development. Compared to the past, the time of children’s sexual development is indeed earlier. The age of precocious puberty remains the same. Many parents today are very concerned about precocious puberty, and as soon as they find that their children have a tendency to develop, they rush to the hospital with their children. It is often confused with the trend of “precocious sexual maturity” and the “advancement of age” of development. It is generally believed that girls develop breasts before the age of 8 and have their first menstruation before the age of 10; boys begin to develop their testicles before the age of 9 and develop their secondary sexual characteristics, accompanied by rapid physical development, which is called precocious puberty. Although the age of development has advanced, the criteria for determining the age of precocious puberty remain unchanged from the current academic viewpoint. One is an abnormal phenomenon and the other is a normal trend. Many parents become more anxious, what if their child happens to be at the age between normal sexual development and precocious puberty? Distinguishing the two by age is just a simple determination method for parents, but when you get to the hospital, there are more specialized tests. For example, in the hospital, the child’s gonads will be graded to see how far they have developed. In addition, a bone age test can be done, and if necessary, some girls will need an ultrasound of the pelvis. Even if the child is precocious, parents should not be too anxious, but follow up, some of the development progress is slow, no treatment is needed. Reminder Precocious puberty has a relatively large impact on a child’s physical and mental health While Daidai’s (pseudonym) little ones are still enjoying the pleasures of childhood, the 8-year-old is often lying in bed suffering from monthly stomach aches. At a young age, she was entering puberty. Daidai’s mother said that a year ago, when she helped her daughter take a bath, she noticed some changes in her body and her breasts began to bulge. In the first half of this year, Daidai’s mother noticed that her daughter was having her period and experienced abdominal pain once a month, which made the whole family anxious. After a series of tests, Daidai was diagnosed with “precocious puberty”. This is by no means an isolated case, as the average age of puberty for children today is generally earlier than it was 10 years ago. Experts told reporters that if a child is determined to be precocious, it may have three effects on the child’s health. 1, due to premature maturity, the skeletal growth period is shortened, the epiphysis will close prematurely, affecting the height of the affected child, resulting in their final height shorter than their peers. 2. It is easy to cause psychological disorders to the affected children. Although the children start to mature sexually, their psychological maturity is not consistent with this, which can easily cause psychological disorders to the children. 3.It will affect the systemic endocrine disorder of the affected children. In the outpatient clinic, there are some girls who start to enter puberty at the age of five or six. Precocious puberty may not only cause children’s psychological inferiority, but also make them feel different from other children and “alien”. For example, some girls have to wrap themselves up tightly in the summer, and do not want to play with their friends. These children are often affected by their height, they will be taller than their peers before the age of 10, but this height will stay at about 1, 4 meters, and will be shorter than others as adults. 6 to 8 years old children weighing more than 50 pounds should be careful “Parents should carefully care about the development process of the child, before the child is 3 years old, it is best to do a health checkup every 3 months, timely detection of the development of height and weight, can be early detection of premature sexual maturity of the child’s disease.” . If a child at the age of two or three has sexual characteristics, the possibility of precocious puberty is high; if a child between the ages of 6 and 8 is found to weigh more than 25 kg, he or she should be alert to precocious puberty and take medical measures to control the development of the condition. The formation of precocious puberty is a very complex process, and many precocious puberty cannot be examined for its real cause, which may be related to the whole social environment. In recent years, a large amount of foreign literature has reported 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 contain estrogenic activity, which, when absorbed through water, food, and skin, become the direct cause of pseudo-precocious puberty and also the cause of promotion of true precocious puberty.