CPP: Not Happening Within a Vacuum

Central Precocious Puberty is not happening within a vacuum.

What I mean by this is that over time the average age of pubertal changes has dropped. (Here is a related article, although it's dense and covers many other aspects of this issue, as well.)

Younger starting ages have become normalized in the sense that as the age has dropped, we seem to continue to say, "Well, maybe that's just happening these days..."

As an example, the PubMed Health (U.S. National Library of Medicine) link included in my first blog post says, "Some evidence suggests that it may be normal for these changes to occur as early as age 7 in Caucasian girls and age 6 in African-American girls."

If precocious puberty is considered to be under eight for girls now, next year will we say that age seven is normal? And why make a statement that brings the normal age even lower for African-American girls?  

One article I found says, "All puberty that appears to begin with breast development when a girl is age 6 or 7 is not precocious puberty.  Puberty among those with early onset may be progressing at a slower pace, or the initial appearance of breast growth may not herald the real onset of puberty."

The author's argument suggests that early breast development that is not then followed by more advanced breast development or the earlier start of menstruation should not count as precocious puberty.

I would argue that even slight breast development can seriously affect a six or seven year old girl's interactions with friends, her comfort changing in the girls locker room, the way boys and other people see her, and the way she thinks about herself.  If so, how unhelpful to ask the parent to wait to see how fast the puberty progresses, particularly given that once it does, it is usually impossible to reverse its effects.

Rather than taking a "this is the new normal" attitude, we should try to protect childhood more and ask harder questions about what is going on here.