Mary Broadfoot writes:

>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.


Kathy responding:  Mary, this last bit is a little confusing.  Are you
implying that 11.5 years is NOT early?  It is, in terms of averages for
modern industrialized countries, where the average is still 12.5 years, and
has been for the last 20 years or so.  11.5 isn't incredibly early, but it
is still a full year ahead of the average.  I had menarche at 14.5, which
was very late for my cohort (born in 1955) where most of the girls began
menstruating when they were 13.0.

>
>I expect Kathy Dettwyler will say that much of this is cultural.

Certainly the makeup, dress, and talk of boyfriends is cultural.

  But are we as
>a society contributing by depriving our children of mother's milk?

Definitely in lots of ways, but maybe/maybe not in terms of hormones and
puberty.

  By the way,
>Kathy, have you any idea how difficult it is to get 'Dancing Skeletons' in
>Glasgow?

Uh, no, actually, I had no idea.  It is usually only sold in
college/university bookstores.  But you can find order info on my homepage
or e-mail me privately.


Kathy D.