Politics & Current Events
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Puberty before age 10?
Soy is common and prevalent in many asian cuisines and it doesn't seem to do much to their puberty age (which has also gone down as their caloric intakes and food quality has gone up), so I imagine it would depend on your genetics to a certain extent how it effected you.
She will do in a pinch, I mean she is no Pinky
Good point.
Also, when I think about it, what about boys and early puberty? If it's environmental/dietary shouldn't the same be happening to them?
reading this article made me so thankful for my own mom. she was a very late-bloomer, and i was a very very very early-bloomer. other than one trip to the pediatrician to make sure everything was okay, she didn't make me feel like a freek. she talked gently and appropriately to me about shaving, undershirts, bras, etc.
and while i was a child of the 80s and i'm sure had plenty of hormone-laced milk, my small farm-raised, preteen in the 1930s grandmother was also an early bloomer. as were all 5 of her sisters. for me, i'm sure it was largely genetic.
Ha, that's funny, I was just wondering this too.
This is interesting to me. Copzson was a late bloomer even by male "standards" he really didn't start growing until undergrad when he got probably 4-5" in height. He is still rail thin and he wasn't fed that much differently than babycopz. I think there is something about the estrogen that some cows produce (and even more if they are pregnant) that may play a role?
Maybe since boys hit puberty later than girls in general and they don't have a menstrual cycle they aren't as susceptible to hormone exposure from food?
I'm just talking out of my ass now, but I am nervous about my daughter. I got my first period about a month before my 11th bday and I hope she doesn't start puberty earlier than that.
No, honestly I think you are probably close to the reasoning. I think that my main concern with having a daughter that started early is knowing that it puts her at a supposed higher risk for certain cancers, breast being one of them and she has an ugly familial history already on her dads side.
Except that GMOs were introduced to the food market in 1996, which is way after I started my period and first began drinking soy milk.
?_?
But yes, let's keep on this game of Who's the Superior Mother.
There's actually a lot of data out there that shows pretty conclusively that increased caloric intake = earlier onset of puberty. Developing countries see a lowering age of puberty onset in girls as they turn into first world countries and food security becomes much better. I'm not saying the stuff in our food absolutely could not have an effect, but its not some cure-all to just feed your kid organic, non-GMO and voila, their puberty will not happen before they're 13. And acting like it is is just yet another way that pressures parents to try to be perfect, when it's just not realistic.
Click me, click me!
That's what its looking like, and don't act like you didn't know that was a flammable statement when you said "Yeah I went there".
Don't worry, Copz. DD was 3 1/2 with a bone age of 7. She just turned 4 and is 118 cm at last checkup. She isn't close to overweight, we eat nothing but organic, very little sugar and no juice, no hormones, our water is filtered from the tap so we don't even use plastic bottled water, our plastic stuff is BPA-free (I was a maniac, I know), and we're in Europe with European regulations on everything and still....
I really really don't want to worry about early puberty. It's selfish also. She's my baby and I feel like I don't get to have the cuddly little one as long as my other friends do. She's the size of a 7 year old, you know. Childhood already goes so fast and DD's is (at least in terms of size) is going double as fast. So that makes me sad.
I was tall though, too and I got my period at 12-13 and I am still waiting for my boobs to grow at age 36, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope she's just tall for her age and all will be normal.
You didn't do anything wrong, Copz. Babycopz is perfect.
I agree with/<3 all of this.
Andplusalso, the anecdotal evidence of those who do feed organic & non-GMO food having a later onset puberty is biased in the fact that those parents take more care with what their children eat in the first place instead of feeding them Mickey D's or any other high caloric intake diet.
But hitting puberty early doesn't make your childhood end any sooner. We no longer live in an era when your first period means it's time to follow through with the betrothal and send your kid to leave with their husband's family.
Tall, short, bleeding, or dry, they're still whatever age they are with the same interests.
Simma down, yo!
Click me, click me!
I don't think it is perfect parenting pressure though. I mean I didn't have someone standing over me in the grocery line tsk, tsking the milk or red meat I bought...I wish there had been actually.
What really makes me see red is that it shouldn't be matter of label reading or buying organic at $17 a gallon...it should just be.
I was fed complete sh|t growing up. The majority of my food was chemicals (chock full o' hormones).
And I still appear to be a later bloomer, having gotten my period at 14.
Currently Reading: Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
Now isn't the time to tell you I married her off years ago
ditto
That must be so hard. I'm sorry. Some relatives of DH's adopted a little girl, so they aren't able to compare her development to that of her relatives, but she is 2.5 and the size of a 5 year old. Her mom said one of the hardest parts is seeing people look at her daughter like there's something wrong with her. They clearly think she's about 5, but she talks and acts like a 2.5 year old because that's exactly what she is.
There is no doubt that cows are given crazy horomones - and antibiotics, too - and that those chemicals are present in their milk. It's CRAP, and I won't give it to my kid, just like I won't give him non-organic strawberries because they are loaded with pesticides.
Honestly, until we can get an FDA and Dept of Ag with some friggin balls, I don't trust half of what they tell me.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
I stopped organic milk but still get hormone-free really for my own sanity than because I really believe it is *the* difference between DD going into puberty at 6 vs. 12. That and GMO-free corn are my 2 last bastions of "clean eating" - I just can't not do them.
I totally can see how being fairly overweight and having a good amount of family/social stress would cause your hormones to start a *fake* early puberty with the budding.
I'm an organic feeding hippy mom but I think actual accumulation of body fat probably has more to do with it. The more body fat, the more estrogen you have (I think?) So maybe, and I hate to bring this up, but girls are heavier/bigger/have more body fat now and are starting puberty earlier because of that.
Just look at ladies who have PCOS as an example, lots will tell you that the wonky cycles, acne prone skin and other things regulated once they lost weight.
Soy in the US is used differently, though. Soy in Asian countries isn't a huge part of your diet. Tofu or tempeh, occassionally. As a dish, or in a dish as a "seasoning" the way meat is used as a flavor ingredient, but not a main component in a lot of cuisine. But just look at how many products in grocery stores have soybean oil as an ingredient. It's almost as prevalent as corn because of all the products that can be made from soybeans. And it's a product which is almost always genetically modified, so add that to the mix.
Anecdotally, I've seen articles talking about delayed-onset puberty in boys (due to increased phytoestrogen from soy). http://www.livestrong.com/article/219369-side-effects-of-soy-formula-for-infants/
40/112
I haven't seen anyone in this thread argue that precocious puberty (or even on-the-early-end-of-normal-which-is-probably-due-to-genetics puberty) is caused exclusively by US food sources. But if the average age of puberty in women is going down over a century after the US has had decent food security (when the age of puberty is likely to go down), something is causing that MASSIVE shift.
But anecdotally, sure, let's talk about everyone we know who eats organic and still got their period at age 9.
ETA: childhood obesity certainly might be as much or more of a factor than GMO soy, but that's still a product of our food culture.
40/112