It can be difficult to feel like you are one of the only girls in your grade that hasn’t started her period or hasn’t seemed to ‘blossom’ yet.  If you are what might be called a ‘late bloomer’ (I know, awkward term) it is normal to feel anxiety and worry that you are different, or that something is wrong with you!

Why-haven't-I-started-my-period and where are my boobsBut the best thing to do is put your worries aside – and realize that when it comes to puberty, there is no such thing as ‘normal!’  (Heck, you might even consider yourself lucky.)

Some girls start menstruating at the age of 8 or 9.  Others may not start their periods until they are 15 or even 16.  Some factors that can delay your first period are EXTREME exercise (meaning several times a week for several hours per day) and a diet that is lacking in vitamins and minerals.

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When does it start?
The majority of girls will experience breast development in elementary school.  While some will begin as soon as 1st grade, most girls are a bit older (8-12 years old).  The initial breast development, often called budding, is typically the first sign of puberty.

 

What should we expect?
Not only will things begin to look different, they also will feel different too.  Breast buds often begin as hard knots below the surface. The nipple and the darker area around the nipple, known as the areola, get darker and begin to poke out a bit creating a bump.  While one may appear before the other, it is only a matter of weeks or months until the second arrives.  Early on, it is also common for them to feel tender and/or itchy.

 

When do we shop for her first bra?
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Believe it or not, as a father – you play a huge role in how comfortable your daughter is with her own femininity.  Girls who have a loving, supportive, compassionate, and understanding father have been proven in numerous studies to have more self-confidence and perform better in school (and life!)

It’s easy as a father to sit back and allow mom, or another female role model to handle the particulars of periods – considering those things ‘woman’s stuff!”  The problem is that if a girl in the midst of puberty sees her father avoiding the subject or throwing his hands over his ears every time someone mentions the word ‘period,’ the girl can often feel like her father is not accepting her transition to adulthood.  And this can be a problem.

Remember that this transitionary time in your daughter’s life is confusing for HER too – and the last thing she needs is to feel unaccepted by those around her.

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Get Ready Puberty isn’t a four letter word, nor is it something you should feel confident about ignoring until your child is older.  Puberty may be arriving sooner rather than later for your child.  Even if your child begins developing at a later age than most, he or she is likely to have friends who begin puberty early in elementary school.  Did you know that recent research (2010) found that more than 1 in 7 seven year old girls (15%) and more than 1 in 4 eight year old girls (27%) had already started puberty? What Is It? Puberty is the process of changing from a child to an adult, including the acquisition of reproductive capabilities. It is important to remember that this is not a single event; it is a multi-year process involving numerous milestones. During this stage of life children experience considerable change: physically, emotionally, cognitively and socially. When Does It Begin? Typically puberty begins between seven and fourteen years of age in girls and between nine and fourteen years of age in boys. Every child experiences an individualized pubertal timeline.   Both genetics and environment play roles in the age of onset. Gender also plays a role, causing girls to start puberty a few years before boys. By the end of elementary school, most girls have begun developing and are taller than the boys. Within a few years the boys not only catch up, but also surpass the girls in average height. READ MORE… »

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By Carolyn West

I live in a house full of girls. Actually, I live in a house full of three girls and one guy. That guy? My husband. He’s not too happy to be living in a house full of girls.

Boys, admittedly, get a bad wrap. They are wilder, harder to potty train, break things, get dirty and have stinky rooms. Girls, on the other hand, are supposed to be sweet and loving and like to wear pretty pink clothes. For the most part, this is true. Until puberty.

Around the time a girl turns 9… or in my house, 6, they become these little creatures you don’t recognize. While they look cute and innocent, there are hormones running rampant behind the façade. Don’t let them fool you.

My house of girls is a little like an insane asylum. There are individual rooms where little girls lurk behind closed doors doing heavens know what. When you open a door, you never know what you’re going to get.

One minute they are loving and devoted daughters. The next minute they are banshees screaming at you and clawing to get out. This is the face of a tween.

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By DeAnna L’am

One of my mentors said to me many years ago:

“It’s great to work on cleaning the barn, but don’t forget to RIDE THE PONIES!”

When I heard myself sounding like an old tape-recorder reminding my daughter Ellah (9) of simple things she needs to do every day, I decided to start taking walks with her.

Are you so busy reminding your girl of her homework/chores/the need to get-out-of-the-door, that you don’t have time to enjoy her anymore??? If you wonder where did all the joy go, now that your girl is approaching puberty, read on…

We bundle up every morning before school, and go for our special time together. We pause as we enter the walking trail, and thank Mother Earth for her beauty. While Ellah skips, hops, and jumps around me, I take my “power walk.” We invent little songs and pacing-rhymes; we open our eyes to see the skies, our ears to listen to birds, and our hearts to take in the beauty. I enjoy my daughter’s company immensely on these walks, as well as get my exercise!

How can you implement this with your girl (or children)?

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Your daughter will soon be entering (or recently has entered) an exciting stage in her life. Essentially she is crossing the threshold between the girl she has been and the woman she will become. Thanks to hormones, everything will be changing: physically, emotionally, cognitively and even socially. You can be assured that with a little knowledge, open and frequent communication, and lots of love, you and your daughter will grow closer and closer as you navigate this new stage of life together.

Being prepared is the best way to ensure that your daughter has a positive experience whenever her first period begins.

What’s Happening in Her Body?
Menstruation is a cycle in the female body that allows fertilization or pregnancy to happen. Your daughter’s first menstrual cycle begins when her ovaries release hormones, which signal the lining of the womb to thicken, preparing a place for a fertilized egg to grow. The pituitary gland also sends a hormonal signal to the ovaries, who then release an egg or ovum. This is called ovulation and happens in the middle of the cycle. The egg floats down the fallopian tube on a path to the uterus.

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By Jessica Drummond, MPT, CCN, CHC

Owning Your Beautiful Body (at Menopause) for the Sake of Your Daughter (at Puberty)Isn’t it funny that God designed moms to hit menopause just as their daughters are hitting puberty.  (Well, actually, I guess we’ve designed it that way, since now many of us are having our children well into our perimenopausal years.  But, wait… My grandmother had her last child at 40.  So, I don’t know who to blame!)

Think about that for a moment.

Just when you’re feeling even worse about your body, the perimenopausal belly fat, the sagging well-past-breastfeeding breasts, the bits of gray hair, the middle aged acne, all combined with the fatigue that comes from raising tweens and burning the candle at both ends for the last 3 decades, it’s your job to combat 6000 negative media messages everyday about the unattainable perfect female body!  Ugh. READ MORE… »

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The similarities between puberty and menopause are vast. Think about it. Teens who are reaching puberty deal with acne, fluctuating hormones, body shape changes, irregular menses, growing pains and fatigue. Similarly, women going through peri-menopause or menopause are sometimes afflicted with mood swings, joint aches, the inability to concentrate, skin eruptions and mind-numbing exhaustion.

hormonal-household-puberty and menopauseAs women wait longer to have children, their menopause is more often coinciding with the onset of puberty in their children. The question, then becomes who just slammed the door and began sobbing? was it mother or daughter?

Coinciding hormonal transitions can result in tiresome bickering and cause extra strain on the entire family. While it’s difficult to achieve complete serenity in a house where hormones are colliding, there are measures that can be taken by both mother and daughter to ease tension. The following are a good place to start:

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