It's interesting to me that a couple of folk thought in terms of a link with
cancer rates  -  not what I had in mind!   Perhaps because my older children are
12 and 14, I am interested in how children cope with puberty.  It seems to me
that early puberty is not something I would wish for my children  -  I like to
think that they can be children for as long as possible, without having to cope
with all these hormones!  I realise that sounds very negative - I hope I'm not!

To be completely anecdotal - Most of my children's friends were bottle fed.
Mine have all been breastfed.  They are all very big - #1, boy, 6'3" at age 14,
#2, girl, 5' 11" at age 12.  The oldest (who incidentally had quite a bit of the
'other stuff' in his first 6 weeks) probably started puberty about when I
expected.  #2 I thought might be early, because I had read that body weight is
significant (she is not a 'skelf') but in fact had first period at 11.5 years.
I know quite a few of her peers had already started.

I have observed perhaps from age 9 that many of my daughters peers wore make-up,
dressed like mini adults, and talked of boyfriends.  Call me old-fashioned, but
I would be happier for that to happen later.

I expect Kathy Dettwyler will say that much of this is cultural.  But are we as
a society contributing by depriving our children of mother's milk?   By the way,
Kathy, have you any idea how difficult it is to get 'Dancing Skeletons' in
Glasgow?  Oh well, it gave husband something to do with his lunch hours...

Mary Broadfoot, Paisley, Scotland