Diet taboos for children with precocious puberty

You must not touch illegal foods that are clearly added with sex hormones, avoid long-term intake of large amounts of foods that may have estrogen-like effects, and never eat supplements that are said to "grow taller" or "replenish the body". As long as you control the amount of other ordinary foods and maintain a normal weight, there is no need to have excessive taboos. There is no need to make your children unable to eat this or touch that. Eating every day is like torture.

Not long ago, I met an 8-year-old girl at the pediatric nutrition clinic. Her bilateral breasts had grown for almost half a year, and her bone age was over one and a half years old. When she came, her parents were clutching several pages of a fasting list copied from the Internet. Even strawberries and tofu were listed on it. When I asked, I found out that my grandma had heard people say that snow clams nourish the body, and she had been feeding the child twice a week for half a year. She also added royal jelly to the child every day to "increase immunity." Isn't this the most typical pitfall?

To be honest, many parents think it is well-intentioned to give supplements to their children, but they really should not give them those weird things. Purple river car, deer tire cream, snow clam, royal jelly, etc., which themselves contain a large amount of animal-derived hormones/hormone-like substances, are really not for children. There are also those "high sugar" and "children's smart pills" sold in WeChat Moments. Our hospital had them some time ago. I picked up a little boy who had been eating Internet celebrity sugar-boosting sugar for half a year, and his bone age exceeded 2 years old. After sending it for examination, it was found that estradiol was illegally added to the product. He looked like he was growing up in a short period of time. In fact, the epiphysis closed early, and he didn't grow taller in the end. Don't take this kind of disadvantage. There are also collagen drinks and beauty oral solutions that parents take by themselves. Many of them are also added with estrogen. If they are left on the table for children to drink, they are prone to problems in the long run.

As for the rumor that soy products cannot be eaten, there are actually different opinions in the industry. The mainstream nutrition community has concluded that soy isoflavones in soybeans are estrogen-like, and their activity is only one thousandth to one ten thousandth of human estrogen. Normal children drink one or two cups of soy milk and eat small pieces of tofu every day, which is not enough to induce precocious puberty, and there is no need for dietary restrictions. However, some clinical pediatric endocrinologists will suggest that children who have shown signs of precocious puberty can appropriately control the intake of soy products. For example, the daily dry weight should be controlled within 20g, which is about a cup of 250ml soy milk. Add half a piece of palm-sized soft tofu instead of eating half a box of old tofu in one meal and drinking three or four cups of soy milk every day. There is no need to completely ban it. After all, the high-quality protein and calcium of soy products are very beneficial to the growth and development of children. Banning it completely will not be worth the gain.

There is also great controversy over out-of-season fruits. Many people say that using ripening agents on out-of-season fruits will lead to precocious puberty. In fact, plant growth regulators do not bind to human hormone receptors at all and will not affect human hormone levels at all when used regularly. It is really unjust to say that they cause precocious puberty. However, many doctors will recommend that children eat seasonal fruits as much as possible. This is not related to precocious puberty. The main reason is that most out-of-season fruits require long-distance transportation and long-term preservation. Some businesses may use excessive preservatives in violation of regulations, which is not good for children's gastrointestinal and metabolism. It is of course better to eat seasonal fruits.

As for the fried chicken that everyone is talking about more fiercely, I don’t think it’s necessary to put the blame on the chicken. Nowadays, the white-feathered chickens that are regularly raised are the result of breed selection. It takes more than 40 days to be released to the market, which is normal. There is no need to take hormones at all. Taking hormones will increase the mortality of the chickens. Farmers will not do this kind of loss-making thing. What we really need to pay attention to is the high fat content of fried chicken. If children eat it every day, they will easily gain weight. The aromatase enzyme in the adipose tissue will convert the androgen in the body into estrogen, which will induce or aggravate precocious puberty. Therefore, fried chicken is not completely unavoidable. It’s okay to eat one or two pieces to satisfy your craving occasionally. Don’t eat it three or four times a week. The key is to make your child fat.

By the way, one more thing to remind everyone is that not all precocious puberty can be solved by taboos. If it is central precocious puberty, it is mostly caused by organic lesions of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. Dietary adjustments are of no use at all. Follow the doctor's advice and intervene when medication is needed. Don't delay the best intervention time by blindly restricting food at home, which will affect the child's final height.

I usually give advice to parents who come for consultation, and I don’t give them a long blacklist. I just give them three sentences: Don’t touch strange supplements, eat less of those that are too oily and sweet, and don’t put things in your children’s mouths that you think are “too supplementary”. After all, children need various nutrients to grow. Excessive dietary restrictions may lead to malnutrition and affect development. Of course, if a child has premature development of secondary sexual characteristics, the first priority must be to go to the pediatric endocrinology department of a regular hospital to find out the cause and then make targeted adjustments. Don't search for information at home.