Precocious (Early) Puberty vs Premature Adrenarche

One thing that most experts agree on is that children are going through puberty earlier. In the early 1900's the average age of girls getting their period was 16, now the average is 11...this means plenty of girls get it quite young for the average to be that much lower.

One of the biggest reasons that can be proven is that kids are quite a bit heavier now. I know your child is not overweight, but it really depends on how much body fat they have. Hormones are stored in fat, so the more fat a child has, the earlier they are going to go through puberty.

Most people in my family are the exact opposite...we are very small and are practically off the charts on the low end. My mother said she didn't get her period until she was 16 but she was very small and very thin. My 10 year old only weighs about 55 lbs and still looks like a little girl in all respects. On the other hand, most of her 10 year old friends are much larger, and many are quite developed with their periods already started. I'm sure many of them were your dd's size at that age.

I'm not sure there is much you can do...sometimes precocious puberty is treated with a drug that halts the hormones (Lupron?)...I'm not sure you want to go that route, but they'll probably talk with you about it.

My daughter was a bit on the early side with all of those signs/symptoms, too. She was 7 when she started needing deodorant, and started shaving under her arms at 8 or 9 (I forget now when exactly I realized she had been using my razor, LOL). My daughter has always been very tall for her age, like your daughter. When she was 9, she started developing in earnest (breast buds, pubic hair, etc), and she was about 5' tall and 90 pounds at that time. During the next 2 years, she grew 8", and got her period at 11. She's now 11.5 years old and seems to have stopped growing. (She's 5'8", so her height is normal/tall, she just got there VERY early!)

Anyhow, we have seen several different pediatricians during this time frame, due to changing insurance and moving, and they have all said that her development was within the normal range in terms of age and size. I do think that girls tend do develop faster once they reach a certain size/weight, but I don't have any scientific proof to back that up. That's just my observation as a ballet mom (watching all of these girls around the same age, it just seems like once they hit 85-90 pounds, their development kicks into high gear).

My other thought is that if your daughter eats a fair amount of non-organic meat, she may be exposed to a higher amount of growth hormones that way. You might want to limit the amount of meat she eats, and/or try to buy organic for her if it's in your budget to do so.

I have a daughter who had Precocious Puberty. She was diagnosed as a baby, only 14 months old. If they have not yet done a bone age on her that should be next. We did many, many tests (if you look back at answers I have answered this question before) and it seemed to me the easiest for me to understand and the scariest was her bone age. The Pediatric Endocrinologist (which appear to be pretty rare and very hard to get into) explained that when her bones thought she was about 11 or 12 they would close up and she would stop growing. That was not good as her bones thought she was more than 7 at that age of 14 months. I have to say a good pediatrician is worth anything!!! We were very, very lucky as my daughter was the youngest patient the endocrinologist had ever seen. He said many times over the years how lucky we were to have a great pediatrician. Possibly switch doctors and get a little more information from them.

Wait and see what the Pediatric Endocrinologist says/finds out per the tests.
And then, he/she should be, sitting down with you and discussing the findings. And ask him/her any questions.
Endocrinology is very complex.
No one can guess at it.
So just see what the Specialist says.

Also, typically, they do an x-ray of the hand... to also see what the child's bone age, is.
Did they do this?
Or just do blood work?

You are not happy with the Dr. you went to. Do you mean the Pediatrician or the Endocrinologist?
In my city, there is only... 1.... Pediatric Endocrinologist. 2 at most maybe, by now. So that means, that that practice/office... is VERY VERY busy. it can't be helped. There are not many Pediatric, Endocrinologists, around.

When my daughter was younger, maybe about 5... we had to see a Ped. Endocrinologist, because she was getting precocious puberty like symptoms. Anyway, we saw a Ped. Endocrinologist, and they did an x-ray of her hand to determine bone age etc., no blood work was necessary at that time. But the end result was, per MY daughter... that she was fine. She is 11 now, and she is still fine. But again, this is per MY daughter's case. Each case is different.