WTH? Puberty?

Most of my group of friends started between ages 10 and 12 - that's over 40 years ago. Nothing new with that. 7 and 8, now that seems crazy young to me.

Results found that in their seventh year, 27% of African-American girls and 7% of white girls had begun breast development and/or had pubic hair. Between ages eight and nine, those numbers had increased to 48% of African-American girls and 15% of white girls. Also at age eight, 17% of African-American girls and 2% of white girls had axillary hair.

Menarche occurred in the girls’ eleventh year for 28% of African-American girls and 13% of white girls. At age 12, 62% of African-American girls and 35% of white girls had begun menstruating. For white girls in the US, the age of first menstruation has remained stable over the past 45 years. In African-American girls, age at menarche has declined by about 6 months in the past 20 to 30 years. The authors felt that the change in age at menarche in African-American girls may be due to their coming closer to achieving optimal nutritional and health status.

Girls in this study were taller and heavier than in the first and second National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES, which occurred more than 20 years ago), especially the older girls. Girls in the study who had one or more secondary sexual characteristic were larger and heavier than girls who had not begun puberty. A 1994 report on the National Growth and Health Study found a similar increase in the height and weight of nine and 10-year-old African-American and white girls compared to results from previous NHANES studies.

The mean onset age for breast development was 8.9 years for African-American girls and 10.0 for white girls. Pubic hair onset began at age 8.8 for African-American girls and 10.5 for white girls. Axillary hair appeared at the average age of 10.1 in African-American girls and 11.8 in white girls. All of the characteristics emerged significantly earlier in African-American girls both with and without controlling for height and weight

Objective: The objective was to investigate whether early life exposures influence the timing of puberty, as defined by both early and late markers, in healthy German girls and boys.

Conclusion: In both boys and girls, intrauterine and early postnatal growth factors appear to influence both early and later markers of puberty onset independently of prepubertal body composition.

I agree - they may be physically ready, but are they emotionally ready?

That's great but remember that when some other kid, the kid your kid choses for a partner, enters into the equation all bets are off. Who knows where they've been, what they've done, who they've been with, what their parents have taught them, etc., etc., etc