Need Information About Early Pubic Hair on My 8 Year Old Son

The pubic hair sounds normal, the nipple thing not so much.

I can't remember not having pubic hair, but it took me forever to get breasts and a period. So early pubic hair is nothing to worry about.

But the breasts? I would ask a doctor.

Hi, I am Nutritional Consultant and I work with children/ toxicity and hormone issues.

I would encourage you to watch www.sharethecause.com/live for some information on what is happening with our children. This is a 9 minute documentary with very valuable information all parents should know.

Also, www.ewg.org .. the environmental working group has a lot off info on children and toxicity.

Some of the developmental changes are normal.. some are enhanced by the hormones in our milk, eggs and meat. I would encourage you to make sure you buy these foods that are not enhanced with 'estrogen' making hormones. It is a huge problem for children today.

Also, toxins in plastic mimic estrogens and are a problem.
Always use glass when heating up food. Plastics leech.

If you want more info and help.. fill our the comment section on the documentary. L. Medina ###-###-####

See your pediatrician to evaluate for precocious puberty; they sometimes want to treat it so the child doesn't end up too short.

A little about me: Child psychiatrist in Palo Alto with two lovely kids, 18 & 12, and a great husband of 20 years.

I am not aware of a problem like this but for your own piece of mind see his doctor.

Call his doctor's office.

My daughter developed early pubic hair as well. It started in 1st grade and was full by 3rd grade. I took her to several different doctors and they all said that this is perfectly fine, in girls. They did tell me that early pubic hair in boys should be alerted to the doctor. I don't know why. So, you should probably go see your pediatrician.

I would talk to your doctor and try and get more information.

One thing you might look into is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia which can be seen as early puberty in boys and is often misdiagnosed. There was an article in the New York times recently : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/health/07endo.html

The "Boy's Body Book" says "about half of all boys develop swelling under their nipples as a part of middle puberty" and that it should go away within 6 months. Also the ages for starting puberty is 8-12 according to the book.
Sounds like your son is a really young starter.

Do NOT give soy as one mother suggested. Soy is highly estrogenic. In fact, giving an infant soy formula is equivalent to giving 5 birth control pills a day.

Other products to stay away from that mimic estrogen:

Chlorine in tap water you drink and shower in, and in swimming pools/spas. Put a reverse osmosis fiter on the tap and shower.

soy casienate, soy extract, soy protien, soy lethicin, etc which is in almost all processed foods from ice cream to hot dogs to chicken nugget breading.Don't eat them!

Parabens found in almost all lotions including suntan lotions. Go to mercola.com for paraben free sunscreens.

Dental sealants for children's teeth. Use cod liver oil daily and stay away from sugar/grains to keep kids teeth from rotting.

all plastics (pcbs).Don't heat, store, or drink out of plastic.use ceramic and glass.

BHT (preservatives) in processed cereals and foods, vitamins
(Don't eat processed foods)

laundry detergents (find a natural one online)

pesticides. (grow your own food)

Hair straightening shampoos used by african american children produced breasts in males.

ergot fungus, wich is common on corn products in the grain silos, has an estrogen effect. Corn syrup is in almost all processed foods, and so is processed corn. get the corn out of the diet.

buy hormone free milk from organic farms - raw milk -(look online).

Hi I have heard of this before when kids are getting too many hormones in their diet. I think it was one of the Caribbean islands that i read about that were giving too high of a hormone level to the chickens, and the kids eat a lot of chicken there. They were showing signs of early puberty, inc breast growth in the boys.I have also heard of this in other areas. I would check into this, and consider feeding my kids only organic meats and dairy products.Good luck!
P.

Hi L.-

I agree with the other posts that recommend having your son evaluated by his doctor. I would ask the doctor to test for Precocious Puberty. I had never heard of it until my niece had it and as a result, started her periods at age 9. Its basically an early onset puberty. Your son's doctor can order blood and urine tests to check hormone levels and also x-rays to check whether bones are maturing too quickly. One of the negatives is that the children don't reach full adult height which can be a big deal for a boy. My niece is 4'10" in a family of 5'6" and taller women. The good news is there are treatments available.
Unfortunately not much was known about it 10 years ago when my niece was going through it.

I wish you the best of luck with this.
C.

Hi L.,

Does your family drink tap water? Studies in recent years have shown that an alarming number of pharmaceuticals (including birth control hormones) have been found in most municipal water. This isn't a reason to buy bottled water. There are some water filtration devices you can put on your sink which should filter it out. This is one possible explanation, but there are so many endocrine disrupting chemicals in our food, water, and air (plastics and other petroleum products, for instance.) All we can do is try to minimize the damage. One idea is to stop using saran wrap on foods, ESPECIALLY in the microwave oven. Soft plastics like wrap are bad, but it's a good idea just to be aware of all the other places it can leach into what you consume.

Your doctor may not want to discuss this so as not to alarm you, I think there's a lot of casual denial about it because there seems to be so little we can do about it. But I also know we have to take responsibility for protecting ourselves as much as possible.

Hi L.,

8 years old seems a little early for public hair, but my son did begin puberty early, and I just wanted you to know that he was the ONLY boy in his class for 3 years that had visible changes.

As long as we make our boys feel comfortable "in their own skin" then he will be just fine.

I think it's normal for some to develope earlier than others.

~N. :O)

When my son was 8, he had a few wet dreams. During an office visit, I mentioned this to the doctor. The doctor said he needed to check his genitals (not sure what he was looking for down there) because if he was really in puberty, then he needed to give him something to stop it.

My son is now 9 and has continued very sporadically to have wet dreams. His voice is lower but has not changed and he has very slight peach fuzz on his testicles. But no real hair or other signs of puberty. The doctor is ok with all these small changes. I'd still suggest you see your pediatrician.

This is a trend in our country to the the quantity of animal products we consume and the quality of those products. Today, meat and dairy is filled with growth hormones which our kids consume, leading to earlier and earlier puberty. This causes many problems later in life. You can, however, change this now. I recommend the book, Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. www.joelfuhrman.com. You can find similar information in lots of other books and on other websites, too. Check out www.pcrm.org. The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine can send you a free Vegetarian Starter Kit. I completely agree with one of the other responses to avoid plastics as much as possible, too. Microwaving plastic is especially bad as it leaches into foods. A plant-based diet filled with whole grains, beans, traditional soy foods like tofu and tempeh (not the fake stuff), lots of fruits and veggies is always the right choice. In the meantime, I would still discuss this with your son's pediatrician. Feel free to email me with any questions. I teach natural foods cooking classes and specialize in vegan and vegetarian cooking. I have a friend who is a holistic nutritionist and would be happy to refer you to her if you are interested. Before having my son (now 2 years old), I ran the cooking school at Whole Foods Market.