[2xpink]

Hi all,

My DD1 is just eight and is going through puberty. All the signs point to her starting her periods within six months or so. She has been to the paed, had blood tests, has breast buds..

She is also a very anxious child. She has had some visits to a psychologist to help with this, but she is still finds it hard to cope out of her comfort zone.

The Paed has recommended we start with a Psych to prepare her, but as a last resort we could delay her periods...

Has anyone been through this with their DD? Does anyone have any advice? I am feeling really daunted, and want to help her through this as best I can.

Thanks in advance..

[ZombieMum]

I think that if she's armed with some age appropriate information, then she might be less anxious. Have the breast buds only been recent? As they might go down again - and could be another year or so before she has to deal with periods.

There's some great books out there - so I would invest in a few and put in a special box, with some 'supplies' (aka pads) and some nice girly things (maybe some pretty things from Smiggle?), maybe some treats (ie chocolate) and have a 'talk' to her to help prepare her. This way she can read her books any time she wants, and it might help reduce her anxiety for when it finally happens. This worked really well with my DD (ie the books), but she was a little bit older - she does have anxiety as well as Aspergers.

[Escapin]

Is she a bright kid? Would it help just to keep it to 'physical' changes, not 'you're becoming a woman' sort of speak? There's lots of interesting things about the human body, babies are born with their skull not fused, you get baby teeth and then lose them for adult teeth, I'm sure you could find heaps more. Might make it more intellectually interesting and less panic-y.

I CAN tell you for sure, when she first gets her period, don't do what my mother did, which was get all excited and say 'how exciting, let's go and tell daddy!'. No, I didn't want to tell daddy, I just wanted to know what to do with the yucky knickers!!!

[lsolaBella]

I got my breast buds at 9yrs but didn't get my period until 12.5yrs when I was a 10DD cup

[bmfamily]

I rarely reply but felt I had to with this post. I had early menarche, breast development and the start of pubic hair at age 8, my mother took me to the doctor but never told me about periods....I got my period at age nine and kept it a secret for six months. I had no problems with it except resentment towards my mum for not telling me about it. I know have two daughters and I do worry that they will have early periods, but only because it will mean that they may be shorter than their peers because of the relation to growth patterns and periods.
My sister on the other hand started bud development at age 9 but didn't get her period till age 13, and she is a whole 12 cm taller than me.
Your paed will tell you due to the bloods whether she has started puberty or a long way off.
You know your daughter and whether she will need a psych to help in the process of puberty, but if she is a more anxious child then it may help. Does she go to a small or large school? If a large school then more than likely there will a few girls in her year level who are going through puberty....as there was in my school, those friendships were invaluable.
All the best with your daughter.

[kadoodle]

I've just gone through this with DD1 - aged just turned 10. I'd explained to her what was happening already, but was caught out on her not liking the pads I had handy. I hadn't expected her to start just yet as she's so small.

My thread's on here and there's some great advice on it.

[duritz]

DD just turned 8 and has been "budding" for a while now (around 7.5 years). The doctor seems to think that 8 isn't particularly young these days for the onset of puberty I'm not convinced lol.