Alarm over premature puberty

• Source: Global Times
• [00:28 August 23 2010]
• Comments

The mother of a 1-year-old girl diagnosed with precocious puberty, shows reporters an X-ray of the girl. Premature puberty was blamed on excessive hormones. Her mother said she fed her milk powder produced by Synutra International. Photo: CFP

By Lin Meilian and Liu Chang

Many women, including young girls, tend to be self-conscious about the size of their breasts and wonder whether they are large enough. But the parents of Wang Jingyi, 11, of Shanghai, have the opposite concern.

They are worried that their daughter's breasts are growing too fast compared with other girls her age.

Ever since the girl was eight, she has been making trips to a children's hospital linked to Fudan University. The first took place after the girl complained about pain in her breasts whenever she touched them.

At this point, her parents can only make guesses about the cause.

"She has a classmate also suffering the problem of precocious [premature] puberty. The classmate has some secretions sometimes and is receiving injections for that," the father, Wang Kang, told China News Week.

As a baby, Wang's daughter was breastfed for about six months after birth, and was later given imported milk powder.

In recent years, he has been anxious about whether insufficient breast milk is to blame.

"My daughter eats Western style fast food as other children do. She drinks milk powder as other children do. The children just eat the same foods. What causes precocious puberty? It is really difficult to say," the father said.

Concerns about precocious puberty surfaced after three infant girls in Hubei Province between four and 15 months developed breasts. They were fed milk powder produced by Synutra International.

The Ministry of Health ruled out any link between the infants' problem and the milk powder, based on an investigation into the hormone content of the milk powder, which showed it was normal.

The company said that their products met the standards.

Fear spreads

Many parents, regardless of whether they used the company's products, have been flocking to hospitals to check whether their children have premature puberty, and some have taken steps to stop it.

Luo Yuqiang, whose 9-year-old daughter showed symptoms of premature puberty, told China News Week that he has barred the girl from eating chicken and pork out of fear that they contain hormones that may be dangerous.

Statistics from the pediatrics department at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province showed that from 1950 to 2000, girls experienced their first period at a younger age.

The hospital said during those years, the start of menstruation went from 14.38 to 12.33 years old. In 2006, Guangzhou saw girls menstruating at age 11, Du Minlian, a professor in the department, told the magazine.

The magazine, citing a report from Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital and Health Institute, said the rate of premature puberty has increased from 0.5 percent a decade ago to 1.3 percent today.

Experts generally believe imbalances in diet and nutrition can trigger puberty earlier.

Treating premature puberty is expensive. At the children's hospital at Fudan University, it can cost about 2,000 yuan (about $294.5) for one injection.

Cornell University published a report in 2000 saying that weight, height, diet, exercise and family history are all possible factors behind early puberty

Liang Li, an endocrinologist with the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, told the Global Times that eating high-protein foods for extended periods may cause premature puberty.

She said that obese girls are more prone to early physical development than girls who are of normal weight.