Ever heard of Precocious puberty? It’s a condition where a child’s body begins changing into that of an adult too soon. Scary huh!
For some time now, our lifestyles have been moving away from natural, healthy living and towards an abyss of synthetic, chemical-ridden creature comforts. It was only a matter of time before we saw the effects of these choices—and one of the most confronting is the early onset of body odour (and even precocious puberty) in our children.
It can be hard for any mum to watch their baby lose their babyness (and that addictive baby smell). But finding yourself in the deodorant aisle on behalf of an 8-year-old is just heartbreaking—and a strong warning sign that we need to make some drastic changes, quick smart!
Kids are naturally smelly—but it’s supposed to be from playing with the dog and not because their bodies are maturing too early.
But we’re also finding lots of simple, natural options we can choose instead, and all we have to do is make the switch.
We all know mums can do anything. Now they can do even more, and protect their kids from exposure to body-bending toxins—while they keep them smelling fresh as a daisy (and the dirt its growing in).
Why puberty is getting earlier
Have you ever wondered why babies and little kids don’t get smelly body odour? It’s because before puberty sets in, their sweat comes from eccrine glands that pretty much only secrete water. It’s not until puberty that the apocrine sweat glands kick in, and begin to secrete the oily substances that our body’s resident bacteria thrive in (stink is a normal process in the adult body, by the way, because these little critters are only doing their job of digesting these oils). So why are more and more mums noticing their kids start to smell, and even buying them deodorant before they’re ten years old? In a word: chemicals.
The early onset of body odour can signal the start of outright puberty. Over the last few decades, the onset of puberty has begun to shift earlier and earlier, with girls as young as 8 and boys as young as 9 starting to undergo the physical changes of sexual development. While early puberty can be hereditary, in most cases it’s environmental: since we first noticed it in the 1990s, we’ve discovered that it’s linked to obesity and exposure to chemicals.
The obesity crisis is bad enough for our kids as it is, with poor diet and lack of exercise causing more morbid illness than ever. But researchers believe that it’s also triggering early puberty, especially for girls, where the natural build up of fat reserves signals to the brain that the body is ready for reproductive capabilities. The worst part is, fat cells can retain and store the hormone-disrupting chemicals we’re exposed to, so we end up stuck in a vicious cycle of weight gain and toxin exposure. Scary, right?
Precocious puberty can have a huge physical, psychological and emotional impact, and dealing with body odour is just one part of a larger parcel that the child has to endure. Besides that, early puberty isn’t just a problem in itself: it’s actually a symptom of a wider endemic—the daily doses of poison we give ourselves every day, which are causing lots of other debilitating health problems in our society. That’s why we need to overthrow our current lifestyle regime and get rid of the toxins in our foods and household products. It’s time to mutiny!
