Victoria's New Secret: Your 7-Year-Old May Be the New Kid on the Bra Store Block

We need to stop injecting food source animals with hormones. They pass on to us in the milk and meat we get from them. If it means lower production then so be it. We eat too much meat, anyway.

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The hormones in food are probably a factor. However, everyone rushing to consume soy products is probably a bigger factor. Soy has a lot of phytoestrogen in it. So this form of estrogen may be causing the onset of puberty to come at an earlier age. Tofu is processed to a further degree than other soy products and is therefore, not as much of a problem as other soy products. Put down the soy people and buy organic milk (no hormones).

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most mexican girls beging having sex at 9-10 years of age and their parents encourage it.

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Unfortunately it's not just hormones in the milk... they feed cows and chickens hormones to make the breasts and rib meats more plentiful. It also gives the animal a shorter time to its own reproductive age, making breeding more profitable.
But those chemicals go into our children's bodies and do not just get excreted, they absorb into and effect the childrens' bodies.

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They article seems to only casually mention the fact that overweight girls develope more quickly and that they're looking into environmental factors. Is that not the whole root of this? No doubt that hormones, natural and synthetic, and hormone mimics in plastics are the reason. Also, it's getting warmer and it's a fact that females in warmer climes develope earlier. If your kid (male or female) is overweight, they're going to have larger breasts. This is a good reason to cut back on meat, even the organically raised type, and keep your kids intake of crap to a minimum. And as far as clothing sales? Look at who controls the finances. If it's the children, then you've got more of a problem than precocious puberty.

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I am amazed by all of the hostility flying back and forth on this subject. Many of the viewpoints brought up are valid (if not all relevant). I also believe growth hormones in our food are the major contributor to early development, but I cannot say this with any certainty. As far as the age of development goes, I am currently 26 years old, I was 13 years old when I started my cycle. My two best friends also began their cycles around this time. Girls here were not developing until 12-14 when I was younger. I have a 7 year old daughter, and a nine year old niece. My 7 year old is very thin (because of her genes) and shows absolutely no signs of early development. However, my nine year old niece has begun to develop breasts, and her mother was a late bloomer. She is not overweight, but is heavier than most girls her age. So I believe that genetics and weight also play a role, but the growth hormones in our foods are what is really causing this to be a HUGE problem.

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YEARS ago - perhaps 25 or 30, a study came out that the USDA was shipping meat overseas and to the US territories that had too high a hormone level to be sold in the continental United States. Puerto Rico was a major consumer of this meat, and what prompted the study was the observation that little girls there were developing breasts and beginning menses much earlier than stateside kids. It turned out the hormones in the meat were to blame. It's not only girls who suffer, but the boys too. There is a higher rate of little boys with delayed testicle descent. I don't know itf a study has been done on the rate of gynecomastia in boys exposed to elevated hormone levels (estrogen or estrogenic-like chemicals) but my guess would be that breast development is higher for them as well.

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It's not only the hormones in food children are eating, but also the sexually explicit images they see on TV and movies (this has been well researched). This is a natural chemical reaction occurring when sex hormones are stimulated, either visually or physically. or by the direct introduction of hormones through the foods are children are being fed. Please parents, preserve your children's childhood. Protect them from stimulating influences before they are ready for them by shutting off the TV in their presence, and purchasing healthy foods. To those saying hormone free foods are too expensive; use the money you spend on junk food, cigarettes, alcohol, TV, movies, cell phone, and internet services, plant a garden, go vegetarian, ... whatever it takes. It's all about priorities.

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The cause is enviromental and manmade, we live in a estrogen dominant society BPA, Parabens, Phenoxyethanol these perservatives are found in everything and they have estrogenic effects on people especialy children, as well as SOY, in asia it is used as a nastural contraceptive due to the estrogenic potential it has, most baby formulas are SOY based. read up on the studies of these listed, PARABENS and Phenoxyethanol are perservatives can be found in almost all baby and childrens shampoos, womens cosmetics and toiletries,and plastic containers especially bottled water BPA the same. any mother using products with these chemicals transfer the same risks to their unborn child, things absorbed throught the skin have a 10times higher potentcy then anything you ingest orally.But companies dont want you to think otherwise because then where would there buisness be if you stopped buying the fun shampoos and such.and overweight girls are bigger candidates for breasts because the breast is mostly fat, thats why when an over weight woman sheds pounds her boobs may shrink a size... we have created this problem for our little girls and it is up to us to educate ourselves where the economy will not and protect them the best we can and ourselves.

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Scary, damned scary, probably right now, there is some freako pedophile anxiously reading this article. Like parents of young kids don't have enough to worry about already.

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It is not just the girls. Look at the boys in Jr High, and high school they are showing sign of being much older. When you see high school boys with beards they have grown up too early.
In my days there was no hint of a beard of anything like that on the boys. As a matter of fact when we were inducted into the Army in WWII most of us shaved about one a month if that often, In the Army in basic training we were requied to shave each day even though there was nothing to shave. Now there are some boys in Jr High who have more beard than I had when I was 22.
Something has change, I don't know what it is. In the girls people noticed the bumps, but not the beards on the boys.

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It's not just girls maturing young...a week after my 10th birthday, I got a rather interesting present during the night before Christmas, LOL. That was 30 years ago, and now I've occasionally heard of boys starting puberty even younger than that, at 9. The girl's situation is obviously worse than the boy's, but both should be studied.

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That is exactly what it is. Imagine all of the hormones that are pumped into almost every protein we consume. That's enough to give guys boobs. I've seen some 16 year olds that look older than I do.

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I don't like all the hormones and processed foods out there but I think a lot of people are in denial about their daughters. The main link researchers have found is body fat %. Face it, if your daughter is chunky, she will go through puberty early. If she's skinny, she'll go through it later. Puberty is kick-started by body fat % in girls. The body realizes she could support an extra life then "boom" puberty. All the overweight girls I knew went through puberty early. I would honestly be shocked if a big girl didn't go through puberty early because I've never seen that.

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That's an easy one to figure out , It all started when they started giving hormone shots to cows to produce more milk . The hormones are in the milk the kids drink.

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I blame it mostly on the food industry. They dump chemicals on and in everything we eat. Make it bigger faster, less time, more profit. They don't care about the outcome. It's all about Greed!

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