Another common cause of
"There's no evidence that losing weight will have any effect on a child who already has precocious puberty," says Kaplowitz. Some parents feel guilty when their kids develop early puberty. They think they should have been able to stop it. That's not the case.
Puberty looks different, in terms of both reproductive hormones and breast maturation, in girls with excess total body fat, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Frequently overweight and obese children are taller for their age and sex and tend to mature earlier than lean children. The increased leptin and sex hormone levels seen in obese children with excessive adiposity may be implicated in accelerated pubertal growth and accelerated epiphyseal growth plate maturation.
The average age for girls to start puberty is 11, while for boys the average age is 12. But it's perfectly normal for puberty to begin at any point between the ages of 8 and 13 in girls and 9 and 14 in boys.
Delayed puberty affects about 2% of adolescents. Most commonly, puberty may be delayed for several years and still occur normally, in which case it is considered constitutional delay of growth and puberty, a common variation of healthy physical development.
Most children have a slimmer appearance during middle childhood than they did during the preschool years. This is due to shifts in the accumulation and location of body fat. As a child's entire body size increases, the amount of body fat stays relatively stable, giving her a thinner look.
Studies have shown that excess weight and obesity affect the start of puberty differently for boys and girls. In girls, it can cause early puberty and in boys it can delay puberty.
The authors found an association between %BF and resumption of the menstrual cycle, establishing a cut-off point of 21.2% of total body fat.
Most girls get their first period between the age of 9 and 16, and puberty normally begins around the age of 8 to 14. Most girls will not start menstruation until they weigh at least 100 pounds. Puberty hormones lead to girls developing breast, hips, pubic hair, and growing in height.
Compared with normal weight young adults, overweight or obese young adults stood taller in childhood, but had relatively less growth in height throughout the teenage years. There was no association between adult height and weight status.
Does body weight affect height? A 2011 study suggests that there is “no association between adult height and weight status.”
Puberty won't begin until hormones released by the pituitary gland in your brain tell your body that its time. You may sometimes wish that you could start puberty faster. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to control the timing of puberty.
Increased caloric, protein, iron, calcium, zinc and folate needs have to be provided during this critical period of rapid growth. Severe primary or secondary malnutrition also can delay the onset and progression of puberty.
Results: The onset of puberty occurred when the boys' weight gained 40.33±9.03 kg (median 39.00) and BMI was 18.62±3.12 kg/m2 (median 17.80), whereas the late stage was reached at weight of 62.44±10.39 kg (median 61.00) and BMI 21.47±2.84 kg/m2 (median 21.20).
Changing Body Shape
Boys tend to look a little chubby and gangly (long arms and legs compared to the trunk) just prior to and at the onset of puberty. They start to experience a growth spurt as they progress further into puberty, with the peak occurring during the later stages of sexual maturation.
Noticeable weight gain may occur prior to a growth spurt as excess fat helps promote growth. As a child goes through puberty, their stores of body fat may change. For example, girls tend to gain more fatty tissue in the hips, thighs and buttocks, while boys may have an increase in fat on their stomachs.
As you get older, you start to lose lean body mass like muscle and bone density. As early as age 30, our lean body mass starts to drop by a little over half a pound each year. You might not notice a change when you step on the scale, because the lean weight you lost is often replaced by fat.
The averages for 12-year-olds are 89 pounds, for males, and 92 pounds, for females. However, beyond biological sex, many other factors influence someone's weight at this age, including their height, body composition, the onset of puberty, environmental factors, and underlying health issues.
Delayed puberty may also negatively affect adult psychosocial functioning and educational achievement, and individuals with a history of delayed puberty carry a higher risk for metabolic and cardiovascular disorders.
The term “late bloomer” refers to a child who goes through puberty later than their peers. Constitutional growth delay, the medical term for this condition, runs in families. Late bloomers will catch up on their growth and have standard adult height, although it may take a little extra time and patience.
Intensive physical training and negative energy balance alter the hypothalamic pituitary set point at puberty, prolong the prepubertal stage, and delay pubertal development and menarche in a variety of sports.
Higher total protein, animal protein and meat intake in children ages 3 to 7 have been associated with earlier onset of menstruation. High protein intake elevates IGF-1 levels and promotes growth, which could accelerate the onset of puberty.