The girls who started going through puberty at THREE

13/01/08 Daily Mail
The girls who started going through puberty at THREE
by NATASHA COURTENAY-SMITH

At the age of three, the worries of most little girls rarely stretch beyond what outfit to dress their dolls in, and how to ride a bike.
But for Hayley Smith, her third year brought a set of problems most children her age wouldn't even have heard of, let alone been able to comprehend - puberty.
While her baby-sized friends enjoyed the simplest of life's pleasures, Hayley spent her time laid up on the sofa with period pains.
She also had to put up with other un-pleasantries of puberty, including body odour, greasy hair and mood swings.
Not surprisingly, her parents, Debbie, 41, a chemist and David, 45, a project manager from Nottingham, were left both distraught and baffled by the changes in their daughter's body, and behaviour.
"I first noticed Hayley had body odour shortly after she'd turned three," says Debbie, who also has a 12-year-old son, Carl.
"Around the same time, she suddenly gained a lot of weight, despite not eating any more than she usually did. I thought it was very odd, and I mentioned it to my mother.
"When she told me that you wouldn't expect body odour until a child was approaching their teens, I felt sick with worry. I knew something wasn't right. Then, a few months later, I noticed pubic hair growth, and her breasts were beginning to grow too.
"Hayley was still going to nursery, and didn't seem unwell. All she wanted to do was make cakes and do colouring in. But David and I were very upset, and worried sick.
"Until then, Hayley had been a textbook child, hitting every developmental milestone at exactly the right time. We couldn't work out what was happening to her."
A series of tests with an endocrinologist - a doctor specialising in hormone-related disorders - revealed that Hayley's bone age was advanced, but no firm diagnosis was reached.
Instead, her parents say they were made to feel as though they were over-reacting. However, by the time Hayley was approaching her fourth birthday, it was clear to Debbie that she was on the verge of menstruating.
"Hayley started suffering from terrible stomach cramps and mood swings," says Debbie, who in a bid to raise awareness of the condition is appearing on ITV's Tonight programme this evening.
"She'd lie on the sofa, and tell me she felt tired and miserable. I kept a record of when she was unwell in my diary, and I quickly realised that her symptoms were coming in a regular monthly cycle.
"The thought that my three-year-old girl was getting her period seemed incomprehensible, but at the same time, it was becoming obvious to me that her mood swings and stomach cramps were to do with her time of the month.
"The endocrinologist may have dismissed my worries, but I could just tell that my daughter was entering puberty."
And Debbie's instincts proved to be correct. After numerous examinations and tests over the following 18 months, Hayley, at age six, was finally diagnosed with precocious puberty, a condition in which puberty begins at an unusually early age often due to abnormal production of oestrogen, thought to affect as many as one in six children under ten.
Although her periods didn't start until she was eight, her monthly cycle of stomach cramps and bad moods had been a warning sign that her ovaries were maturing, and were a sign of the fluctuating hormones that define puberty.
Her breasts also grew and Hayley, now aged 12, wears a C cup bra.

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