The Sexual Precocity Outpatient Department in the Chongqing Children’s Hospital has been jam-packed everyday since the annual summer vacation began. At least 30 children are diagnosed with child precocious puberty (CPP) on a daily basis, the Chongqing Evening News reported on August 14. Doctors from the hospital expressed their anxiety that sexual precocity may induce a variety of psychological and physical diseases in children. They called on parents and society to pay careful attention to this problem.

An eight-year-old boy growing a beard even bushier than that of a seventeen to eighteen year old youth followed his mother through a crowd of parents and children waiting in the CPP clinic. The boy, feeling embarrassed, hid his blushing face in his mother’s arms.

Prof. Lei Peiyun’s work at the clinic has kept her far too busy to even take a drink of water. “We’d have even more patients than these if we didn’t limit registration,” she commented. As it stands now the doctors here always work overtime, her assistant reported.

“Now it is quite common to see sexually precocious children,” said Prof. Lei, adding that her clinic has been over capacity since the summer vacation began. The doctor sees some 100 children every day. Moreover, 30 out of the 100 are diagnosed early puberty, with over 60 percent of them being girls, she added.

Statistics given by Prof. Lei indicate that the Chongqing Municipality has experienced a stunning increase of CPP cases during the past two decades. She said that in 1990, when the hospital first established a CPP clinic under the endocrine department, they had only 20-30 CPP patients a year. The figure was up to 300 in 1998 and 1,000 in 2004. In 2007, it approached 2,000, causing doctors to surmise that cases of premature puberty in children are increasing by 20 percent annually.

Bad diet blamed

Eight-year old girls and ten-year old boys, both reaching premature puberty, are startling examples of CPP. Besides developing secondary sexual characteristics and ceasing to grow taller, these children are often haunted by psychological disorders such as anxiety attacks and extreme shyness.

“Of all the factors that may trigger the disease, diet is a primary one,” explained Prof. Lei. Previous surveys confirmed that sexually precocious children often ate raised chicken, duck and finless eel. Significantly, estrogen and growth hormones have been found in the flesh of these consumer meats, coupled with antibiotics, food additives, and accelerating agents in fruits. All of these chemicals promote CPP in varying degrees.

Additionally, detergent and pesticide residues, discharges from the plastics industry and decomposed toxic agents all generate environmental endocrine pollutants. Absorbing these poisons in excess can cause children’s reproductive and skeleton systems to fail to fully develop.

Moreover, contemporary Chinese society now allows children easy access to sex-related information. This may also have some impact on premature puberty in children.

Unconfirmed reports describe a six-year-old girl who developed female sexual characteristics when her mother allowed her daughter to eat many popular tonics, including cow colostrum and royal jelly. She consumed these products ostensibly to strengthen her body. Prof. Lei said that 50 percent of the CPP cases she attends to were caused by excessive nutrient intake and/or unbalanced nutrition.

Experts warn parents not to give tonics to their children without a doctors’ advice. Loach, finless eel and out of season vegetables and fruits should not be fed to children.

If a child begins growing abnormally, either too fast or too slow, or if a child’s height and weight is obviously different than his or her peers, parents should take their child to the hospital for immediate treatment.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, August 16, 2007)