In recent years, incidents of precocious puberty have been reported frequently:
- Chengdu one-year-old girls menstruation, breasts, uterus, ovaries, etc. also have enlargement, doctors said that it is related to precocious puberty.
- An 8-year-old girl in Hangzhou developed breast tenderness and enlarged breasts, and after examination, was diagnosed with "precocious puberty".
- A 4-year-old boy over 1.3 meters tall, with pimples, a long beard, and enlarged chicks and testicles. Doctors infer precocious puberty after examination.
......
In 2020, someone did a survey in Qufu City, Shandong Province, which showed that among more than 5,000 children aged 6-10 years old. Precocious puberty occurred in 11.53% of girls and 1.41% of boys. According to survey data from the China Health Promotion and Education Association, as of 2018, about 530,000 adolescents in mainland China had precocious puberty and showed a phenomenon of younger age transfer.
From the above two surveys, it can be seen that the situation of precocious puberty in mainland children is not uncommon. What factors are related to precocious puberty in children? What is the harm? How to detect it early?
First, how to detect precocious puberty early?
Precocious puberty will have a great impact on children's physical and mental health, such as precocious puberty will secrete too many sex hormones in advance, resulting in early closure of the epiphysis, making children shorter in adulthood; Early development of gonads will lead to early onset of aging, and the risk of genital tract tumors will be higher; There is also a negative impact on children's psychology, and psychological diseases such as autism and depression may occur.
So how do you minimize these risks of precocious puberty? The answer is early detection and early treatment, and the earlier precocious puberty is detected, the better the treatment effect. So how to recognize precocious puberty early?
The latest Expert Consensus on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Central Precocious Puberty (2022) updates the definition of precocious puberty as breast development < age 7.5 years or menarche at age < 10 years, and testicular enlargement in boys at age <9 years. The specific manifestations are:
- Girls develop enlarged breasts, pubic and armpit hair, white vaginal discharge, and menstrual cramps (before age 10) before the age of 7.5.
- Boys will have a longer and thicker penis, enlarged testicles, pubic hair and armpit hair, Adam's apple, voice change, and beard on the face before the age of 9, and some breasts will be slightly enlarged.
Parents should pay more attention to these symptoms of their children, and once found, they should take their children to check in time.
There are also parents who find that their babies have leg clamping behavior, and they are very worried about whether this will lead to precocious puberty. In fact, this behavior is a normal phenomenon and has nothing to do with precocious puberty. This behavior is very pure in the eyes of children, in their cognition, private parts and eyes, nose, ears, etc. are the same organs, leg clamping is only one of the behaviors of exploring the body, they just feel fun, and sexual precocious puberty has nothing to do with it.
In addition, if the child often touches the private parts and clamps between the legs, parents should pay attention to whether there is anything abnormal, such as eczema in the private parts, too tight underwear, or the child is too nervous.
Second, stop arguing, precocious puberty has nothing to do with these foods!
There are more and more cases of precocious puberty, and some people think that it is caused by certain foods, such as chicken is grown up with hormones, and it is easy to eat precocious puberty, and it is said that eating off-season vegetables will also lead to precocious puberty... There are more and more such claims, is it true?
1. Fast-growing chicken
It is rumored that today's chickens can be fast-tracked in a month because of hormones, and children who eat too much can easily lead to precocious puberty. But the truth is not so, chicken feeding time is fast because of the problem of breed, at this stage the mainland commonly used broiler breed for white feathered chicken, this chicken is characterized by short feeding time, and there is no relationship between feeding hormones, naturally will not lead to precocious puberty in children.
2. Soy products
Soybeans contain phytoestrogens - soy isoflavones, which many people confuse with estrogen, thinking that eating more soy products will make children precocious puberty. However, the hormones in soy are actually estrogen-like, which is completely different from estrogen and will not cause precocious puberty in children after consumption. And we can't talk about toxicity regardless of dose, the estrogenoid content in soybeans is also very limited, not enough to have an effect on the body.
3. Out-of-season fruits
Off-season fruits are used in the growth process of plant growth regulators, the substance belongs to the low toxicity classification, as long as it is used according to the norms, it will not be harmful to the human body, even if there is a situation of excessive use, it will only affect the taste quality of the fruit, and will not cause harm to human health. Naturally, it will not "ripen" the child.
4. Honey
The composition of honey includes more than 80% sugar, and more than ten percent of water, and the amount of other ingredients is almost less than 1%, and there are many other ingredients in this 1%, and the proportion of hormones is minimal. Moreover, the hormones in honey are plant hormones, which will not work on the human body after consumption, and naturally will not cause precocious puberty.
Third, the real possible causes of precocious puberty are these 4
The true cause of precocious puberty is not clear, but several studies have shown that the following 4 factors may precipitate precocious puberty.
- corpulent
A study in Zhongshan City, mainland China, found that obesity is one of the main causes of precocious puberty in children, and the proportion of precocious puberty in overweight and obese girls is 27.94% and 48%, respectively, much higher than the 8.73% of normal girls, while the precocious puberty rate of obese boys is 6.78%, which is much higher than the 2.86% of normal weight.
Therefore, parents must pay more attention to children's weight, intervene from the aspects of diet and exercise, and avoid allowing children to consume a large amount of fried high-fat foods.
- Disease factors
Precocious puberty can be divided into two types: central and peripheral, the former is mostly caused by central nervous system tumors, other central nervous system organic lesions, and may also be peripheral precocious puberty. The latter may be associated with inherited ovarian dysfunction, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, exogenous androgen intake, and androgen-secreting adrenal tumors.
- Excessive consumption of supplements and tonics
In order to make their children grow their bodies, many parents will give their children a large number of supplements and supplements, which contain complex ingredients and may contain gonadotropin-like substances, which may induce precocious puberty.
- Long-term exposure to BPA-containing products
Bisphenol A is a common raw material for plastic products, and a number of studies have found that exposure to bisphenol A is associated with precocious puberty in children, especially some infants aged 2 months to 4 years old, which are easy to induce precocious puberty after exposure. In 2011, the European Union announced a ban on the production of bottles containing bisphenol A. In addition, the mainland has also issued a ban requiring that infant food containers must not contain BPA. It is recommended that when choosing containers such as feeding bottles for children, try to choose PPSU or PA materials.
Children's precocious puberty is related to a variety of reasons, and parents must pay enough attention to this and change bad eating habits and living habits in time. If you find that your child has an abnormality, be sure to take your child to the hospital for examination in time.
Resources:
[1] "Why do children get precocious puberty?" This reason is unexpected! 》. Yugakuen.2022-08-02
[2] "7-year-old girl has breast development, and it is it that "matures" the child...". Pediatric Channel of Medical Profession.2022-09-13
[3] "Is children's precocious puberty really related to these foods?" 》. Medical Community.2020-10-31
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