Bosoms and Boy Talk and Acne, OH BOY!
Somebody help me! My daughter is growing up too fast!
My daughter will kill me for this post when she reads it but I am just so astonished over here that I have to share with my fellow Moms. I think my 8 year old Sari is already approaching puberty.
It all began around Christmas time. I noticed that all her frontal baby fat seemed to be forming shapes. Whereas she previously had one big round belly that started around her chest and went to about her waist, she seemed to getting boobs! On Christmas Eve she wore this beautiful soft sweater and PA DOW! There they were! Definite boobs. By the end of the night I convinced myself that it was just chubby rolls. She had put on a little weight, after all. I bought some camis for her to wear to smooth her out for school and tried not to think about it.
Somewhere between then and now came an emergence of boy talk and an increase in emotional outbursts. She’s always been tender hearted but sometimes lately she cannot make it through the most innocent of sentences without unexplainable tears popping out of her eyes. I would like to also blame the sassiness and fresh mouth on this but if I’m being honest, that’s always been one of her “qualities”. But what about this boy crazy business? She moons over boys at the baseball field when we go to watch her Brother’s games, and talks nonstop about some of the boys in her class. I have not related these things with the boobs issue until just recently.
For about the last 2 weeks her forehead has been peppered with acne. It started out reddish, inflamed looking and raw. I observed it for a few days and once I realized it wasn’t getting any better I hit the mommy forums. All fingers pointed to the same thing. Onset of puberty. Someone even said that the age range is 8 to 13 and that it has been that way for more than thirty years. This is ludicrous! Anyway, back to the acne. Treatment recommendations were all so similar I decided to give it a try before going to the doctor.
- Use of a gentle facial scrub morning and evening. We chose St. Ives gentle apricot scrub because it was mentioned a few times in different forums.
- Scrub followed up by an astringent for sensitive skin. Clean and Clear for Sensitive Skin is what we are using.
- End with a good moisturizer. The astringent is medicated and alcohol can be so drying so an oil free moisturizer is a must. We are using Cetaphil for its sensitive skin properties.
We mixed and matched products a bit but I found this to be a common treatment. Within a day the redness and inflammation was gone. Now it is mainly just white bumps which appear more or less obvious in different lighting and there seem to be fewer every day. She is due for her physical in a couple weeks and I am looking forward to hearing what the doctor has to say.
It is absolutely heart breaking to see my 8 year old daughter in the bathroom with a head band on, looking up close in the mirror, doing her daily skin care regimen. How can this be? Anybody else going through this? Anybody have any advice?
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Reading this just made me glad that I have a boy and not a girl. LOL! I can’t even imagine having an 8 year old entering puberty. Give your self a hug and fasten your seat belt!
Cin–
It’s strange comin’ back to the old blog commenting, leaving a new blog on my website spot. But anyway, I have three younger sisters, and one of them had precocious puberty, and her stuff started around 6! They slowed everything down as much as they could of course, and it helped. She’s almost 17 now.
I’m with Brenda, I’m glad I have a boy!
All you can do is brace yourself, you knew it was going to happen and you’d have to face it at some point (like so many other things in life too)… you can’t put it off anymore… naturally you still want to ignore it, but since you can’t, be patient with her and once again, like Brenda said, give yourself a hug!
Wow. A such young age enter puberty is embrassing. Imagine you grow more faster as compared your friends around you.
Thanks Girls! And thanks to another commentor who reminded me not to be caught up in my own worries and stay sensitive to Sari’s feelings if she is growing and developing quicker than the oter kids. I keep trying to approve the comment but it’s stuck in “pending approval” land.
My daughter is a trip. She says some of the funniest things about her anatomy and growing up. Some things are just too much to share, though!
Cindy that is incredible about your niece starting up at 6. (Don’t get me started about all the hormones in our meat supply.) She’s 17 now and thriving, right? I suppose we’ll make it too!