re:And teeny-boppery has been pushed back to 8? I know kids are growing up a lot faster these days, but.
its not just social pressure( and there is plenty of that, too, to make little girls look more grown up..)
for a number of reasons, girls are starting to show sign of sexual maturity as young as 8 and 9... their waist narrow, their breast enlarge,they start growing pubic hair.. age 10! (and children as young as 10 have gotten pregnant,-the child fathered by boys as young as 12)
why? one partial region is good nutrition,-
which are also causing dental problems.. our bodies evolved with constant food shortages, and learn to reabsorb calcium from dental roots, of "primary" or baby teeth --but calcium rich diets negate the bodies need to do this, and many kids have to get primary teeth pulled, since the root has never been re absorbed.. their bodies have enough calcium to build "healthy teeth and bones" with out stealing it from the primary tooth root!
sexual developement is tied to nutrition, and better nurished kids develop faster and younger than poorly nurished ones..for girls especially, it is tied to a ratio of fat to muscle..Kids need lots of calories to just grow... in times past, until a girl stopped growing (ie, 13 to 14, when she has reached 95% of adult height) she couldn't get the right fat/muscle ratio... ) the same is to some degree true of boys.. but boys tend to go through a major growth spurt with the onset of sexual maturity.. when they,for 6 months or so, turn into eating machines, and can out grow clothes in a week or two! -- it is incredible!
another reason that is speculated on is estrogen/like compounds in our foods and water supply are raising the levels of estrogen in children, and causing early maturity. (soy compounds are rich in these estrogen like chemicals, as are some growth hormones fed to cattle, (and dairy cows that are fed soy meal have high levels of estrogen like compounds in the milk-- which is then consumed by children)
who knows.. but tween, (and i've seen it for 4 or 5 years now,) covers these kids.
(these changes are also happening to boys,( ei, early secondary sexual developement),but less so.. but boys and girls have the dental problem.
tween (the noun)
