Puberty Now Hitting Girls as Young as 4
I had an earlier post on this phenomenon here discussing some of the possible causes of this early puberty including the environment and more stress
Nearly half of African-American girls start showing signs of puberty by 8 years old, and some American girls are developing as young as 5, even 4 years old, experts say.
Skyla Jones is an energetic 5-year-old from Georgia who loves to play.
Last year, her mother, Melissa Jones, noticed Skyla was tired all the time, had a body odor, and had blood in her urine.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Jones said. “I just went ahead and thought she had a kidney infection. And we went on antibiotics and still it didn’t clear it up.”
Skyla was eventually sent to Andrew Muir, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Medical College of Georgia, who knew exactly what was going on.
Skyla was menstruating and was experiencing other unmistakable signs of puberty
[...]
Studies have tracked an increasing trend of early sexual development.
By age 8, almost half of African-American girls and 15 percent of Caucasian girls start developing pubic hair or breasts.
“The switch that normally gets turned on for pubertal development gets turned on too early,” said Dr. Diane Stafford of Children’s Hospital in Boston.
Until recently most doctors didn’t expect to see these signs until age 10.
“It can have many causes,” Muir said. “Some are related to genetics, environmental factors, and sometimes we just don’t know why it happens.”
Link: Puberty Hitting Girls as Young as 4 Years old
Link: Early Puberty Problematic Among UK children
Previous: Early Puberty
Filed under: Children's Issues
I suppose the initial response of a parent or a community leader would be to panic or start worrying but you know what, people got to start teaching their children about their bodies earlier.
The other concerning thing is the effect something like this would have upon the other same age children. At that age, children learn from each other the most. Hence even if there is one child in a class or group of friends that is sexually aware about their body, they will cause all the others to notice this sexual difference in body and behavior.
The age for hitting poverty had been rising in the Western world (and the rest of the world as well) since the start of the Industrial revolution until the 1960s when the average age again started to go down. However the news story is very alarming. And I agree with br. Tariq that there is reason to be concerned.
As I said in the other discussion on this topic, I feel for the little Muslim girl who goes thru this. I already get some slack from certain people who choose to have their daughters wear hijab as babies, abaya at 2 and niqab at 8, on why my girls don’t cover. I dress them modestly, but if they do not express a desire to cover I don’t push it. My 6yr old daughter can’t wait till she HAS to cover. She sees it as a right to passage. She does not want to cover or pray now if she does not HAVE to. Now that is not to say that she never covers or prays, but I don’t make it wajib on her. I would hate for her to reach puberty early, I enjoy these little girl years and can’t imagine her as a ‘little woman’, though some sicko pervert would wa authoo billah…..
Umm Adam, you said:
“I already get some slack from certain people who choose to have their daughters wear hijab as babies…”
Sister, in the states, I’ve noticed that some AA women put their daughters in hijab at a young age, not for religious reasons, but because they don’t feel like or don’t have time to do their daughter’s hair. The same little girl that had hijab on 2 weeks ago is now running around without hijab on but her hair is freshly braided or done. I know of an AA sister who always has her daughter in hijab but when I visited her home and saw her daughter’s hair, I said to myself no wonder why! It looked like a comb hadn’t been passed through that girl’s hair in weeks! If I had a little girl, I wouldn’t make it wajib on her to wear hijab either…..unless she had funky hair.
DesiGryl, I know many sisters, not all AA, whose children cover (niqab too). Certainly, not all do it for deen, maybe some do it so that their kids won’t get teased for having ‘funky’ hair.
When I was a teacher, I noticed that the Puerto Rican girls developed at an earlier age than did the white girls. I did some research and found that the cattle in Puerto Rico were fed growth hormones. These found their way into the meat and the milk these people consumed. I also noticed that Puerto Rican women aged at a faster rate than did white women. It seemed they went directly from teen agers to middle aged matrons.
I have read studies that indicated if your kids eat a lot of meat, the amino acids and heavy protein in the meat can cause premature development. Blacks tend to eat more - and more fattening foods than whites. Also notice that this is affecting girls, not boys. The onset of puberty is directly related to the amount of bady fat girls have. Women who lack enough body fat can’t even get pregnant and may stop menstruating.
Obese females go into puberty earlier. America has a lot of fat children, and African-American children are fatter than white children, who in turn are fatter than Asian children. Puberty is triggered earlier due to the greater weight, sex hormones being produced by the excess lipids
Subhan’Allah, I find this pretty creepy! :O
I’m totally glad that *I* didn’t have to go through that so early… and I really feel sorry for the girls who do.
However, I wonder… might there not be a reason for this? Like, a spiritual/religious one, maybe? Is Allah trying to tell us something? Hmmm…
i’m a somali women in the united states but i’m considered black. so to inform u i’m not fat, hit puberty at 14, and it’s like that for my whole family and all the people from my country. so when u classify that black people are fat, say black americans or aa’s, not blacks as a whole. because the word black has many meanings.
and to another comment said that black women make there daughters wear hijabs cause they hair is funky, well not all blacks have funky hir just like not all whites have clean pretty hair. my mum started with me wearing a hijab at 4, and i have been told by many people that i have gorgeous curls. so if a parent makes her daughter wear a scarf ata a young age it just means that they want them to get used to it so they wont refuse it in the future. read ahadith and u’ll see why some parents try to teach there kids to follow the dean at an early age. classification of a malfunction to a certain nationality is never good. i urned out well as a black somali muslimah.
Asalaamu Alaikum
I think this may sound upsurd, but I think this is a result of the open exposure to sex in the Western world. Coming from a South-Asian background, I can honestly say there are real benefits in “not talking about sex” or exposing young minds to adult sex talk at an early age. This I believe makes young girls wonder about sexual things from an early age, which forces their minds and body to develop abnormally from a young age. In other countries, girls don’t start menstruating until they are fifteen, or seventeen, whereas girls in the US are having sex with more than one partner at age eleven and sometimes ten. I think it also has to do with our diets in the West. Everything is the US supermarkets looks so appealing, but not much is made out of organic substances, and is totally contaminated with hormones and chemicals which forces our bodies to react in an abnormal manner and girls are over-weight and developed at a young age. It is all what you feed your girls and what you expose to them. If at age five, you are exposing your daughter how to selectively choose what she eats and why this is important and if she is kept occupied with sports, academics and Islamic education, with very minimal exposure to Television and ADS, then I think we can save the African American or any Muslim girl from developing into adulthood from a young age.
Asalaamu Alaikum
F. Ali
“Blacks tend to eat more…”
– Ouch!
Salaam alaikum,
“Sister, in the states, I’ve noticed that some AA women put their daughters in hijab at a young age, not for religious reasons, but because they don’t feel like or don’t have time to do their daughter’s hair.”
You know what is so wack about this statement, is that you have two cases where this has happened and you generalize about a significant portion of black people. Two cases does not make for empirical evidence that this is a tendency. You observe a few cases (even though you never asked the mothers why they covered their daughter’s hair or not) and now you think you know so much about AA Muslims and why their children cover. Now, if I used that logic, there’s a whole lot I can say about some Desi people that would be insulting to you.
But on a less serious notes: Black kids may eat more. This may be true because our mommas’ cooking last better. When I was a kid and my white friends used to invite us over, I’d get really upset. I’d be like, “Mom I don’t wanna.” That was the case for most of my friends, except this one family that cooked good lasagna. So, with the bland food that is the fare at most WASPy houses, I can see why kids don’t want to eat.
On a more serious note: This article does not deal with socio-economic factors that are linked to obesity. For instance, in the innercity, there are few places where kids can play outside. Play grounds are scary, the streets are scary. Kids end up staying inside and watching tv. As a kid, I lived near a farm in an immigrant neighborhood. Even though we were all poor, there were safe streets to rollerskate, run, and play tag in.
Working parents may allow their kids to eat more junkfood. I wonder if you compare latch key kids’ nutritution to those who have a stay at home mom. There are less fresh produce in innercities. I worked as an intern for a study on inner city foods in EAst Oakland. There are entire neighborhoods that lack grocery stores and supermarkets (to this day there isn’t a grocery store in East Palo Alto). Instead are full of liquor stores–mostly owned by Arabs–selling junk food and garbage to low income families. So for families without cars, they are forced to frequent these stores and buy carb filled, saturated fat garbage because they lack proper food options.
I think the hormones in meat and dairy product does play a role in early puberty. It is worthwhile to have a study done to see if there are adverse affects of food additives and hormones.
Sister Margari,
What is so wack about me stating some things that I’ve seen? I never see said ALL or MANY…I said SOME. As a matter of fact, if I take my hijab off right now my hair would look matted and flat and that’s because when I washed my hair this morning I pulled it into a ponytail without blowdrying it first. Because I wear hijab I don’t put as much time into doing my hair because it won’t be seen by anyone but me. However, I don’t think that some women should use hijab as a cover for not doing their child’s hair. You can’t tell me a woman who has her child in hijab with a short dress on is doing it for religious reasons, I don’t buy that.
And if you think that I would be insulted if you mentioned some things about Desis, you are sadly mistaken, I might even have a few things you can add to your list.
I firmly believe that there is SOME truth behind every stereotype.
The implications of your statement is pretty wack. I don’t think that you are aware of how you can perpetuate negative stereotypes. I also think that the very statement by which you claim there is SOME truth behind every stereotype is indicative of your uncritical understanding of race and ethnic identity. If you had stated, in more qualified language, that you have observed a few cases (cases in which you speculated that the mothers’ intentions for covering was because of hair grooming), I would have not not been so irritated. My job is to challenge unqualified statements and to push people to think further. You may talk about how flat your hair is, but hair is not as political or touchy of an issue in your community as it is in the Black community.
Excuse me for my hyper-sensitivity, but if my 4 year old (insha’Allah) wants to put on a scarf and wear a cutsie dress–as 4 years olds sometimes like do, I don’t want someone assuming that I didn’t have the energy to tame my child’s hair to some Western/Asian standards of beauty.
Away on my break, I had briefly meditated on stereotypes. At the root of every stereotype is not TRUTH. Rather, at the root of every stereotype is a FAULTY LOGIC. Stereotypes are not drawn from scientific or rational reasoning that stereotypes. Some stereotypes come out of outright lies, others from anecdotal experiences that are then applied to whole communities. These anecdotal experiences are not qualified, nor interrogated, but instead spread like wildfire. If you tell a lie long enough, people will eventually start believing it. Then when they find anecdotal evidence that confirms the gross generalization, it confirms their prejudice.
Many stereotypes are so broad in reach that you can find a case where this stereotype applies. To me, the acceptance of stereotypes is a sign of uncritical thought at minimum and lazy thought at most.
As a person who has been subject to African/Black American stereotypes, I’m always suprised by the new stereotypes that people come up with everyday. When I see a new stereotype developing, even if innocently, I like to nip them in the bud. I’ve had enough of fighting uphill from some stereotypes only to find out that in many people’s minds, they see me as an exception to the rule. I’m also tired of being hyper aware that any of my actions will be seen as representative of an entire community. One becomes some and that some becomes many and eventually the charateristic of the many is applied to all. Those who don’t fit that stereotype become exceptions to the rule. I’ve seen that logic operate all the time.
Buying into stereotypes is divisive in our community. Normally, a stereotype begins when an individual perceives another individual with some characteristic unlike themselves. The individual then makes them an “OTHER” and begins the process of categorizing, essentializing them based upon some simplified characterizations that are often a part of the figment of the indvidual’s imagination. Stereotypes are used to at minimum objectify and at most de-humanize the “OTHER.” Either way, it is hurtful and damaging. We should all aspire to do better and the only way that we change what we do is changing how we think. Starting there, we can make effective changes and erase racism in our communities.
What implications am I making? I made a simple statement of things that I have witnessed in the African American Muslim community. So because I’m not AA I can’t talk about it? I bet if my alias was Shaniqua Alize’ Muhummad you probably would have agreed with me. So go on with your double-standards.
Second of all, since when was combing hair a “Western Style of Beauty”. I don’t expect their hair to be relaxed and pressed. Just pass a comb through it. The little girl’s hair that I saw had lint and carpet fibers in it. Clearly, her hair had not been touched in a long time.
And YES I do believe that there is some truth behind every stereotype BUT that’s not to say that that applies to EVERY single person. One negative Desi stereotype is that we smell and I’ve come across many who do. I’m not going to get my panties in a bunch because its insulting my people. Shoot, it’s the truth!
How many times have you oberseved incidences of Black women covering their daughter’s hair in hijab because they didn’t comb their hair? So far, I have seen you mention only two cases. That is the issue that I have with your claim that some (some indeterminant) number of African Americans, as opposed to other ethnic groups cover their daughters because they didn’t do their hair? The terminology that you continue to use imply that this is a large tendency. As for me, it is new and I’m challenging you on it because I think those are relatively isolated cases. Also, you don’t know what those mother’s intended. You were making assumptions. And you continue to make your assumptions.
“I bet if my alias was Shaniqua Alize’ Muhummad”
See, you lose respect right there with that statement. This is not about a double standard, I call out African Americans on their wack statements too. Ask Abdul Quddus. Your statement was condescending and wrong on so many levels. It also shows that you are not above taking low blows and being condescending towards African Americans.
The problem that I do have with you right now is that you are unreflective about the process of stereotyping and how it is dehumanizing.
“And YES I do believe that there is some truth behind every stereotype BUT that’s not to say that that applies to EVERY single person. ”
I outlined the illogical reasoning that goes into stereotyping. If one chooses to be deaf blind and dumb, then the onus is on them. People claim that education erases racism and intolerance. But I find that education and dialogue really isn’t the key to ending negative stereotypes, as in the case of this discussion right here. Really, humility and reflection is at the core of letting go of our prejudices essentializations, and generalizations. Only then can we start approaching each other as human beings.
Finally, even though that stereotype and I have smelled an occassional south Asian, I have also smelled Arabs, Africans, Europeans, Russians, Asians, Latinos, White folks, Black folks, mixed folks. People smell bad when they don’t shower or wear deoderant, period. But in racist literature, Europeans perpetuated the notion of a Negro smell. They never qualified it, the fact that Black folks worked in the fields and in the sun, had less access to baths. But to this day, I hear White supremacists asserting that Black people smell. They make this claim to assert difference. Whether or not one Black person smelled is not the issue, but the dangerous process of perpetuating stereotypes because they are convenient.
Now, if someone met you and said something like, “I’m suprised you don’t smell like onions.” You should be offended. If not, then then maybe you think that you’re an exception Desi. And to me, that’s sad. But that’s you. Do you, but when you talk about my community, you are talking about me because it has a reflection on me. And if I read something that doesn’t ring true, I’m going to be all on it.
My 5-year-old daughter once had on a knee length skirt, and insisted on that particular day, she was going to wear a headscarf.
And yes, her hair was neatly combed. LOL.
Tariq, I found your website through Rachel’s Tavern.
I would like to comment on the early puberty if I may. One cause of this is actually pretty well documented. There are a class of chemicals called endocrine disrupters. Endocrine disrupters cause hormone imbalances, and some imbalances can cause early puberty. These chemicals are all over in American culture. Nail polish for example, plastics for another, as well pesticides and herbicides. Two particular chemicals inlcude pthalates, which are used to enhance fragrance in shampoos, soaps and air fresheners, and PVC which is in most plastics. These two chemicals mimic estrogen in the body, and impact both girls and boys. One study showed these impacting up to four generations. I believe that chemicas and polutants in our environment are cuasing the early puberty.
Interesting topic. I think the onset of early puberty has more to do with body weight (at least in America) than anything else and a lot of studies have indicated that the more body fat you have the more hormones you secrete and also store. America has a big problem with over eating and overweight children which is reflected in the onset of puberty. I think this same early puberty problem would probably also be reflected in the Arab populations in the gulf where people tend to be overweight from both bad diet and lack of physical exercise.
On the other hand, female gymnasts, anorexics/bulemics who have virtually no body fat barely develop, don’t get periods, and basically look like little girls until they start putting more fat on their bodies
so that means nationality has nothing to do with the moment u get ur period, but ur amt of body fat does.
I would hope that this information changes the tune of some of those “old enough to bleed, old enough to breed” arguers.