star Children

[DanieMarie]

Re: star Children

It seems that it's taking longer as well, as we're living longer. I was reading an interesting report on that a while back, about how maturity is taking longer as people live longer.

[thalassa]

Re: star Children

It seems that it's taking longer as well, as we're living longer. I was reading an interesting report on that a while back, about how maturity is taking longer as people live longer.

...and yet physical maturity seems to be occurring sooner.

[DanieMarie]

Re: star Children

...and yet physical maturity seems to be occurring sooner.

I was reading some interesting articles about that one as well. Apparently not likely the hormones the Americans use in meat (as they're banned in Europe and it's still happening) but is probably related to either the prevalence of processed food (a lot of which has soy, a phytoestrogen) or hormones in water (though hormonal birth control also isn't as common in some European countries encountering this problem), or both. Though, I'm not an expert....just a fanatic reader!
Of course physical maturity doesn't equal emotional maturity (as I'm sure we all know anyway lol).

[thalassa]

Re: star Children

Of course physical maturity doesn't equal emotional maturity (as I'm sure we all know anyway lol).

yup...I had meant to post that I think the combination of the two is likely an added problem............but I got distracted with kids, and I think little fingers posted it before I meant to...

[DanieMarie]

Re: star Children

Yeah it's kind of scary. Hormones raging before the brain can even really deal with them....

[Ophidia]

Re: star Children

But that's really how it's always been. The minute a girl has her first period, biologically she's a baby-maker (I'm not sure what the marker is that denotes boys have live sperm - nocturnal emissions? Uncomfortable bus rides?). I've known girls as young as 9 starting their periods (mine came along at 11 1/2) - and physically they're potential mommies. Mentally & emotionally, they're still playing with Barbies & think boys are gross.

For a lot of 'gifted' or 'precocious' kids, they may get treated as though they're older than they really are, because they can have intellectual conversations with an adult (they know 'stuff' even if they may not understand all the implications of stuff they know or be able to have a full critically-thinking debate), so when a 'gifted' kid hits puberty, it adds a whole crop of other situational problems to their coping with being bright and favored. Grown-ups were interested in me and what I knew, and that included grown men - so I had no social boundaries when I hit puberty. Combined with the fact that most boys my own age wouldn't socialize with me because I was a four-eyed geek made me even more dependent on adults for companionship.

I remember, in the 80s, being exposed to some people within the New Age movement who were perfectly willing to take advantage of naive, emotionally needy 'students', passing themselves off as transchanellers or being in communication w/ascended masters or having illustrious past lives, you name it. Many vulnerable folk, both men and women, were taken in and taken advantage of financially and physically. I see that potential for abuse in labeling a child an 'indigo child' or anything similar - a persuasive adult could cater to that child's (or the child's parent) 'special' soul and do all kinds of shady things to them. I've also seen it happen in Pagan communities - here in Vegas there were a couple of rather notorious men - one who enjoyed teaching children about Wicca and witchcraft and the other who passed himself off as a Native American shaman of some sort and liked to share his experience with the younger crowd.

[DanieMarie]

Re: star Children

Yeah but there are reports of girls getting them earlier and earlier, like not just "as young as 9"....the average is getting younger and in a lot of places (I've read reports from the US, the UK and Sweden) it's now "as young as 6/7." I don't think that's always been the case.....

[thalassa]

Re: star Children

the average is getting younger and in a lot of places (I've read reports from the US, the UK and Sweden) it's now "as young as 6/7." I don't think that's always been the case.....

I wonder how much of this is influenced by childhood obesity/overweightedness...I don't really remember the particulars (it was over a year ago, and developmental bio is brain numbing in the chemical pathway nitty gritty) but a) body fat influences hormone production and b) a lot of environmental chemicals (from pesticides, plastics, car exhaust, building materials, etc) build up in body fat--even if countries don't use them anymore, they are still present in the soil, the air, the water, etc.

[DanieMarie]

Re: star Children

Oh yeah, I remember reading about that as well!

And I think all developed countries use a lot of plastics. Germany uses more than Canada does even (at least my side of Canada)!

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: star Children

I was a chubby kid and I didn't start my period till age 11 1/2. But then I was chubby from chicken, rice, pasta, cheese, milk, etc., not fast-food, candy, soda (additives, etc.)

[DanieMarie]

Re: star Children

That's still pretty early though. Average is supposed to be about 13-ish....so 12-14 abouts Not outlandishly early but on the earlier side.

[Dez]

Re: star Children

My mother did ballet...didn't get hers until she was 16. She freaked out when mine started the week before I turned 13!

Race seems to be another facet of the issue...I've read several reports that suggest that children of African descent reach puberty sooner, and so with the addition of hormones from other sources are more likely to start menses extremely young. Putting inner-city girls even more at risk.

[DanieMarie]

Re: star Children

My friend did ballet and didn't get hers until 17! I think it's the lack of body fat they have if they dance lots.

[Dez]

Re: star Children

Yep...low body fat, and usually a very low body weight for their height. Like Thal was saying, there's probably a link between high body fat and early menses. I wonder how it will go for my kids...every since they were born they've both been on the high end for height and weight. The way they're built they don't look chubby, though...they're just very solidly built. Every time I see a new pediatrician, etc, it takes a few months to prove that they're consistent.

[Ophidia]

Re: star Children

Yeah but there are reports of girls getting them earlier and earlier, like not just "as young as 9"....the average is getting younger and in a lot of places (I've read reports from the US, the UK and Sweden) it's now "as young as 6/7." I don't think that's always been the case.....

Our lifespans have only increased drastically within the last couple of hundred years, and in a lot of ways we're still closer to our Cro-Magnon beginnings than people like to admit. Our bodies still want to breed & pass on genes when we're in our prime - when people only lived to an average of 40 years old or so, adolescence was the best time to have babies. Better nutrition, better health care, safer work environments - those have only been around for 100 years or so - I mean, the polio vaccine wasn't even created until the 1950s. It takes a lot longer than a century to undo a few hundred thousand years of development. If anything, it's not unusual that girls are getting their periods before they hit their pre-teens, it's unusual that so many girls don't get theirs until they're 12 or 13.

Along with body fat content, something these studies don't seem to take into account is just how much a stressful environment can play into pushing an organism into breeding & early fertility. In the US, most brown-skinned kids are in economically stressed areas, in overcrowded schools, living with food insecurity and less access to good medical care. Their bodies aren't expecting to live long, healthy, prosperous lives. Those genes want to take advantage of the healthiest years possible - so periods hit & boys grow mustaches when they're 8.