Hello parents, let’s continue with our topic.
In the last section we talked about pediatric obesity, which mentioned that obesity can also cause children, especially girls, to enter puberty early, so today we will discuss this increasingly common disease in modern society.
We commonly see precocious puberty in girls with symptoms such as hard lumps under the breast, swelling and pain, enlarged areola or breast, and bulge before 8 weeks old, and menstruation before 10 years old; in boys, enlarged penis and testicles before 9 years old, and rapid increase in stature. In addition, too early development, too much development, or no development are all endocrine matters that should be of great concern to society and the public. Zhang Guiju, Department of Pediatrics, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
There are true and false precocious puberty. Generally speaking, those who have premature start and hyperfunction of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis leading to early reproductive ability are called true precocious puberty, while those who have nothing to do with the activity of this axis are called pseudo-precocious puberty.
True precocious puberty is caused by early activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, and its mechanism of occurrence is the same as normal, with endocrine changes and development of internal and external genitalia similar to normal maturity, accompanied by accelerated height and weight growth, early skeletal closure, and early cessation of growth.
Pseudoprecocious puberty is caused by the premature development of sexual organs and secondary sexual characteristics due to the excessive secretion of hormones in the body or the excessive intake of exogenous sexual hormones, and the child only develops some secondary sexual characteristics but the gonads are immature, there is no ovulation or sperm production, and the child is not fertile. The sexual characteristics of pseudo-precocious puberty can be of the same or opposite sex, such as breast development in boys and beard growth in girls.
In addition, there is another clinical category of precocious puberty.
In addition, there is another clinical category of precocious puberty called partial precocious puberty, in which the main clinical manifestations are simple premature breast development or simple premature pubic hair development. The simple early breast development is a common phenomenon among infants under two years old, and most children will heal themselves after 2 years old, which usually does not cause true precocious puberty.
The first common cause of precocious puberty is the intake of food containing sex hormones or the misuse of birth control pills, such as ginseng, royal jelly, pollen, chicken embryo, silkworm pupae, colostrum, etc. Most of them contain certain sex hormones and even gonadotropin-like substances; these causes mainly cause pseudo-precocious puberty. The second reason is environmental pollution. A large number of scholars at home and abroad have reported that a series of environmental hormone pollutants have been produced in nature due to the discharge of harmful substances and their decomposition substances into the environment from detergents, pesticides and plastic manufacturing plants. In addition, organochlorine pesticides are rarely used now, but they were released in large quantities in agricultural fields in the past, and their content in soil, water and plants is still high. This may be an important reason why precocious sexual development is mostly in girls.
Excessive light exposure is one of the major causes of precocious puberty in children because light affects the normal functioning of the pineal gland, an endocrine organ in the brain. If children are exposed to too much light, it will reduce the secretion of pineal melatonin, which may lead to early secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone after causing sleep disorders, thus leading to precocious puberty. The incidence of precocious puberty in children is increasing year by year, but very few of them are really caused by diseases. 90% of children with precocious puberty are affected by external factors, of which excessive light stimulation should be taken seriously, especially when children sleep at night, if there are no special circumstances, it is best not to turn on the lights, and as much as possible to ensure adequate sleep. In addition, avoid the light stimulation of computer monitors for a long time to avoid precocious puberty from this.
For a long time, the majority of patients with precocious puberty were caused by organic lesions, or by misuse or exposure to certain drugs. However, in recent years, more than half of the precocious puberty patients are related to excessive supplementation. On the one hand, the standard of living has improved, parents spend more money on children’s food and drink, on the other hand, many parents mistakenly believe that expensive things must be good, and give children to eat scarce anti-seasonal food, highly nutritious sea cucumber and turtle, tonic and health products, which trigger precocious puberty. Precocious puberty has a huge impact on the child’s sexual organ development, skeletal height, intellectual psychology and many other aspects.
Here, I would also like to remind parents that many precocious puberty can be completely avoided. We often mention that children should have a balanced diet, the more chicken, duck, fish and meat they eat the better, and try to eat less anti-seasonal fruits and vegetables. In general, do not give your child supplements or health products, and if you need to take supplements, they should be used with caution under the guidance of a nutritionist and doctor.
Precocious puberty has many hazards and effects on the physical and mental health of children.
1 . If precocious puberty is not detected, diagnosed and treated early, the bones of girls and boys will heal within one to three years after the first ejaculation, making it difficult for the child to grow taller and causing the child’s height to be affected later.
2 . The child is prone to reproductive system diseases: prematurely matured girls who have menstruation, but because the whole body is still at the level of school-age children, they are not able to handle menstruation and treat secondary sex.
Lack of scientific knowledge in dealing with menstruation and secondary sexual characteristics can lead to vulvovaginitis or vaginitis in some girls due to lack of hygiene, and in serious cases, endometritis, adnexitis or pelvic inflammatory disease.
3 . Precocious puberty affects the child’s psychological health, that is, character depression. Due to the imbalance of physical and mental development, children with precocious puberty may carry a heavy burden of thought prematurely, which may lead to anxiety, low self-esteem and other psychological abnormalities.
Precocious children will also become sexually aware, the child lacks reason and control, and is prone to sexual impulses, leading to masturbation, early love, early pregnancy and sexual crimes.
4 . Children with precocious puberty lack social competitiveness in adulthood. Their academic achievement, education, respect, socio-economic status, satisfaction with marriage and fertility are significantly lower than normal people.
Therefore, in the face of precocious puberty, we should “prevent the problem before it happens” and “treat the disease and standardize the treatment”.
The most important thing that we should think about is not only the harm of precocious puberty, but also the fact that if precocious puberty is detected early, most of them can be cured.
Therefore, early detection and timely treatment are very important. Therefore, early detection and timely treatment are very important. Timely and effective treatment can not only prevent the further development of secondary sex characteristics and reverse the existing secondary sex characteristics, but also enable the child to achieve a normal psychological state and the desired adult height.
It is also possible to detect and treat the primary cause of precocious puberty through the diagnosis and treatment of precocious puberty.
The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what to expect. The actual fact is that you can find a lot of people who are not able to get a good deal on this.