Puberty

I have a seven year old daughter and since turning seven, I have begun to notice changes in her behavior along with physical changes. Out of curiosity, I looked up what age puberty began in children. I felt my heart drop into my stomach. How am I suppose to talk to her about these changes? I thought I would have a few more years before this. So, I decided to write my blog on puberty to share the information I found.

• What is puberty?

 Puberty is the name for the time when your body begins to develop and change as you move from kid to adult. Girls begin to develop breasts and boys begin to look like young men. During puberty, you grow faster than any other time in your life. 

Puberty begins around ages 7-13 in girls and 9-15 in boys. When puberty begins, the pituitary gland releases special hormones. Whether you are a boy or a girl affects what parts of the body these hormones work on. Most girls begin their period 2-2 1/2 years after onset of puberty.

• Changes for boys and girls

For boys, the hormones travel through the blood and tell the testes, the two egg-shaped glands in the scrotum, to begin making testosterone and sperm. Testosterone is the hormone that causes most of the changes in a boy's body during puberty, and men need sperm to be able to reproduce.

In girls, these hormones target the two ovaries, which contain eggs that have been in the girl's body since she was born. The hormones cause the ovaries to start making another hormone, called estrogen. Together, these hormones prepare a girl's body to start her periods and be able to become pregnant someday.

Boys and girls both begin to grow hair under their arms and their pubic areas. It starts out looking light and thin. Then, as kids go through puberty, it becomes longer, thicker, heavier, curlier, and darker. Eventually, boys also start to grow hair on their faces.

Pimples, body odor, bodies filling out, and fast growth spurts are all a part of puberty as well. Along with all these changes come emotions. Sometimes the child will feel overly emotional, angry, and have outbursts. Try to remember what this time was like for you and try to be sympathetic while still maintaining authority and discipline when needed. 

• How to talk to your child about puberty and changes

I had no clue how to talk about puberty with my daughter, so I winged it. She is only seven, so this is how i explained it to her.

I told her that as she is growing up, her body will go through changes. That her emotions would be crazy. While she may be happy one minute, the next she could be mad or upset. I told her that her body would go through changes. We had already discussed wearing deodorant because she had to start that when she was 6. We had already discussed her developing breasts when she began wearing training bras this year. So, this was to just touch on her emotions and changes she would be going through. I told her that this was normal. That everyone, even grandma, went through it. I made sure she knew the lines of communication were open and she could talk to me about anything at any time.

A good website to get tips from is http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/talk_about_puberty.html

I think this is the hardest part of being a parent. The realization that your baby is entering into young adulthood. I cried. Hard. Wondering "Where did the time go?", "What happened to my baby?" etc etc. But we have to realize at some point childhood ends and young adulthood begins. And as hard as it is, we have to be prepared.