Signs of Female Maturing, Reaching Puberty and Menstruation Cycle

Filed Under What Goes Inside Us | April 30th, 2007

Girls begin to grow and mature about a year or two earlier than boys. This means that they will start to show changes at about eleven or twelve years of age. And, as with boys, girls who live in tropical climates tend to start a year or two earlier than those who live in cooler climates. In some parts of Africa, females develop so completely by the time they are eleven years old that they are able to have children themselves. The reason for this early adolescence among tropical peoples is not known.

We have mentioned that puberty is stimulated by the increased amounts of hormones that circulate in the blood. In girls, these hormones come from the pituitary gland and from the ovaries.

The first sign that a girl is beginning to mature is enlargement of the nipples and an increase in breast tissue beneath the nipples. This can start as early as ten or eleven years of age among females in most countries. During the following year, hair begins to grow under the arms and above and around the female organs. Then, at about twelve years of age, a girl’s body begins to change shape so that she takes on the appearance of an adult female. Her waist seems to become narrower and her hips and buttocks enlarge. All this time, the breasts continue to grow and take on an adult appearance.

Some two years after a girl first notices breast growth, or when she gets to be about thirteen to fourteen years old, she will begin to menstruate.
Menstruation is the discharge of a small amount of blood from the vagina each month that pregnancy fails to take place. Once a girl has begun to menstruate regularly, it means that her body has matured sufficiently to allow for pregnancy. Of course, as we know, girls of thirteen or fourteen in our country don’t marry and have children. But Nature prepares a girl’s body very early in life so that she is ready to become a mother by the time she finishes adolescence and is fully grown.

The rate at which normal girls begin to mature varies widely. Some may start to menstruate as early as ten to eleven years of age, while others don’t begin until they are sixteen years old. Girls tend to take after their mothers in this regard. If a girl’s mother matured early, her daughter is likely to do the same thing. Once in a while, however, a girl takes after her father’s side of the family. Thus, if the father comes from a family where the females mature late, his daughter might mature late, too.

A girl can be pretty unhappy if most of her friends have developed sooner than she has. But she shouldn’t be too discouraged because, sooner or later, every girl changes into a woman. And it has been found that girls who develop exceptionally early may not grow as tall as those who start their adolescent at a later age.

Since most girls start to mature at eleven to twelve years of age, a time is reached when they get to be taller and heavier than boys their own age. For example, the average girl of thirteen weighs about 110 pounds and is 5 feet 3 inches tall; the average boy of thirteen weighs only 106 pounds and is only 5 feet 2 inches tall. However, by the time they are fifteen years old, the average boy has caught up and has passed the girl both in height and in weight. The average boy of fifteen is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds, whereas the average girl of fifteen is only 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs only 124 pounds.

Girls don’t seem to worry nearly as much as boys about how tall they will grow. They know that there are plenty of short men who like short girls, and plenty of tall men who like tall girls. Besides, height is not nearly as important as intelligence and charm and good looks, These are the things that girls, and boys too, can develop whether they are tall or short.

As we know, mental and emotional development are very important parts of the adolescent period, and girls undergo extremely rapid changes in their attitudes as they mature. A girl first becomes conscious of approaching womanhood when her breasts begin to mature and she has her first few menstrual periods. No longer does she consider herself to be a little girl. Her interests begin to change; she becomes more interested in boys; she wants to dress more attractively; she drops many of her tomboy habits; she wants to wear a brassiere and to use makeup; she gets more curious about sexual matters.

These are natural changes hut they often cause personality difficulties because they happen so quickly. It is not easy to change from a girl to a young lady within a few months or even a year! As a result, adolescent girls often become moody, anger easily, I cry easily, and are especially hard to live with. Also, they are frequently very irritable and tense for a few days before the onset of a menstrual period.

Young girls seem to mature into young women within a short period of time.

Fortunately, the great majority of girls don’t have too much trouble in adjusting to changes as they mature. They will have unhappy times, but they manage to overcome them. But once in a while, a girl stays upset for long periods. If this happens, she should not keep her unhappiness to herself. She should tell her parents about it because they can often help her to understand her problem. If the parents can’t remedy the situation, it is a good idea for the girl to have a chat with the family doctor. He has handled hundreds of girls with similar problems, and he will know what to do to relieve the situation.

For reasons that are hard to explain, some adolescent girls are embarrassed by their development They seem to be ashamed of their breasts, and they try to hide the fact they are getting to be interested in boys. This is silly. A girl should be proud of the fact that she is developing into a woman.
Some girls, like boys, get blackheads and pimples during adolescence. And just like boys, some girls gain too much weight during adolescence. They, too, must not pick or squeeze pimples. And like boys who are fat, they, too, should watch their diet.

Once in a while, the uterus and ovaries of an adolescent girl have trouble in maturing. In such cases, menstruation may be quite irregular and instead of occurring every month, it may come every couple of weeks, or it may not appear for several months in a row. And some girls may have considerable pain with their menstrual periods. These menstrual troubles are sometimes due to the way the pituitary gland and the ovaries secrete their hormones. But most upsets in these glands straighten out by themselves. If they don’t, the girl should be taken to a doctor who specializes in treating these conditions. In most cases, treatment will remedy the condition within a few months.

Signs and Symptoms of Male Begin to Mature and Reach Puberty

Filed Under What Goes Inside Us | April 30th, 2007

The period when boys and girls begin to mature is called puberty, and the child who is maturing is called an adolescent. Puberty is one of the most difficult and trying times for children. Physical growth often occurs more rapidly than the growth and development of the mind. As a result, the child may appear to be confused and disturbed by what is taking place. This disturbance may cause his or her behavior to undergo great changes, and parents and their adolescent children sometimes find it extremely difficult to get along together. A pleasant girl may become excitable and rebellious when she reaches I adolescence. A boy who always was full of fun and laughter might become quiet and unhappy a great deal of the time. This, after all, is when he must begin to think seriously about the future.

Fortunately, the personality changes that take place during puberty are not permanent. As soon as most boys and girls get adjusted to the physical growth that has occurred, they return to their usual disposition. Once in a while, though, children do have an unusually tough time during puberty. They act nervous and cry a lot; they may get along badly with their parents and brothers and sisters; they may not want to be with their friends; and they may be generally unhappy. [f this happens, it is often a good idea for them to have a chat with the family doctor. He will usually be able to straighten out the problem without too much difficulty.

The Maturing Boy
When a boy reaches about thirteen years of age, great changes begin to take place within his body. His pituitary gland and his testicles start to manufacture large amounts of hormones because these hormones are supplied directly to the bloodstream, they influence practically every organ in the body. The most obvious change is a tremendous spurt in the boy’s growth. A boy of thirteen or fourteen may grow as much as three to five inches in just one year!

As we can see from the Chart, the fully matured man may reach almost six feet tall. Of course, in some countries like Asia and parts of the Orient, men tend to be somewhat shorter in height. How tall we grow depends a great deal on Inheritance, and b9ys with tall fathers have a tendency to grow to be tall when they mature. However, a boy with a short father may grow to be tall if his mother happens to be a tall woman. Also, people are a lot healthier today than they were generations ago, and healthy children get to be taller than those who are sick a lot.

The age at which puberty begins may vary greatly from child to child. Some boys start to mature at eleven years of age, while others might not really begin to grow until they are fifteen or even sixteen years old. No one really understands why adolescence is late in some boys and early in others, but we do know that children tend to follow their parents in this respect. Thus, if a boy’s father developed early when he was young, it is more likely that his son will, too. However, if the boy happens to take after his mother, and his mother was a late developer, it is possible that he will have a late onset of adolescence, too.

Boys who begin to grow late often have an especially difficult time. They may have been one of the tallest boys in their class, and suddenly, they discover that shorter kids are beginning to outgrow them. They may begin to worry and feel depressed because they no longer can compete as successfully with classmates of their own age. This can sometimes be a sad situation. In some families, brothers may begin to mature at entirely different rates. As a result, a younger brother may pass an older brother in height and in other signs of maturity. As you can imagine, this can make an older brother feel pretty bad. But the important thing to remember is that all kids eventually grow up, even if they start late. And a good number of the late developers outgrow the early starters. For some unexplained reason, children who live in the tropics tend to develop earlier than those who live in
cooler climates. It is not at all unusual to find boys in certain parts of Africa and Asia who are fully grown by the time they are twelve years old.

Puberty can sometimes be a pretty rough period for a boy because his body often grows more rapidly than his mind. As a result, he sometimes behaves strangely.

Adolescence shows itself not only by an increase in height and weight but by enlargement of the male organs and the appearance of hair on the face, under the arms, and around the male organs. Muscles in the arms and legs get bigger and stronger, the shoulders broaden, and the speaking voice deepens. Sometimes, the larynx (or voice box) grows so rapidly that the voice “cracks.” This means that some of the boy’s speaking is high-pitched, as in a child, and same of it is deep, as in an adult. Occasionally, a boy who sang in a choir finds he can no longer sing at all. Fortunately, voice changes are complete within a few months or at most a year, and the voice levels out and sounds like that of a grown-up.

Girls usually mature earlier than boys, and boys are frequently embarrassed when their girl friends are taller than they are. Luckily. it doesn’t take them too long to catch up.

Some adolescent changes are seen in some boys, but not others. For example, some boys develop pimples and blackheads, especially on the face, shoulders, and back. This condition is thought to be caused by increased amounts of male hormone that are circulating in the blood. The pimples will eventually go away, but it is important that the boy not squeeze or pick at them. The more a boy picks or squeezes pimples, the more pimples he will get.

Once in a while, a boy will develop a little lump beneath one or both nipples. The lump may be a bit tender. This condition is also thought to be due to increased secretion of male hormone. Nothing need be done about these lumps; they will disappear by themselves in a few months.

During adolescence there is usually an increase in appetite, because extra nourishment is needed to supply the rapidly growing muscles and bones. But an adolescent may not know how to control this increased desire for food and, as a result, he may gain too much weight. Frequently, parents will become concerned that their son’s overweight is due to an upset in the way his glands are working. This is seldom true. Most fat adolescent boys just eat too much, and require no more than a good reducing diet.

Adolescence takes place over a few years, but within a year or two after its onset, a boy has matured sufficiently so that he is physically able to have children of his own. Of course, in America, boys don’t marry and have children at fifteen or sixteen years of age. But they could, and in certain parts of the world today, boys of fifteen and sixteen are becoming fathers. By the time most boys reach nineteen years of age, they are fully grown. Some, however, may grow another inch or two between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one. Very little increase in height takes place after twenty-one years of age.

Recommended Correct Age Height and Weight Scale for Boys and Girls

Filed Under What Goes Inside Us | April 29th, 2007

Some youngsters are tall for their age; others are short. Some are heavy; others are light. We can’t always tell too much about how tall or short or how light or heavy someone’s going to be eventually, because we all change a lot as we grow. Many children are short when they are very young, but when they reach twelve or thirteen years of age, they shoot up like magic and become tall. And even if they don’t, short people can be just as good and famous and wonderful as tall people. Also, some boys and girls are too skinny or too fat when they are little, but they get to be just the right weight later on.

Children usually like to find out how much they weigh and how tall they are. Their parents, too, are often interested in finding out how they are growing. I Because of this, it seems a good idea to list the average weights and heights for the various ages. But we must re- member that it doesn’t make much difference whether you are too tall on short, or a little too heavy or thin. You’ll straighten out by the time you get to be a grown-up.

Boys and girls doWt differ much in weight during the early years of childhood. Then, girls seem to grow taller and heavier than boys during the pre-teen years. However, boys usually catch up and get to weigh more than girls by the time they reach 18 or 17 years of age.

Girls tend to be almost the same height and weight as boys while they are young, but as boys become teenagers, they may be taller and heavier than boys their own age. Eventually, as we know, boys get to be taller and heavier than girls’ when they are fully grown.

It might be a good idea for boys and girls who are much taller or shorter, or much lighter or heavier, than others their age, to see a doctor in order to find out if they need any kind of treatment. Certainly, all children who are exceptionally thin or fat should be put on special diets. And a youngster who is really, really short might benefit from hormone medications that will increase height.

Articles on Stages of Early Child Social Physical Development GCSE Courses

Filed Under What Goes Inside Us | April 29th, 2007

Many slow starters catch up and may even pass the quick starters.

Normal children vary greatly in the way they grow, both in their bodies and their minds. Some children are quick starters and grow tall at a very early age, and some children begin to read and write and to learn arithmetic much sooner than others their own age. This doesn’t mean much, because slow starters often catch up and may even pass the quick starters.

There is no way of telling just how far any particular child is going to go in his development at any age. But normal children should never be worried if they are slow in growing, or in reading or writing. In a couple of years, they may jump way ahead of other kids their age, each child develops at his own special rate.

Development takes place in funny ways among normal children. Some learn how to read and write when they’re only four or five years of age, but can’t add or subtract numbers. Others can do all kinds of wonderful things with numbers, but they can’t read or write a word. Some children are husky and tall and have big muscles, but they can’t dress or undress themselves; others may be underweight and small, but can do all kinds of clever things with their hands. Some children at five or six may play the violin or piano beautifully, but they can’t throw or catch a ball.

We do know that boys and girls inherit certain things from their parents. And so we see that youngsters whose parents are excellent musicians often have children who develop musically at a particularly early age. And parents who are great athletes very often have children who develop ability in athletics far beyond most of their playmates.

The height of a child depends upon several things. First is heredity. If a child’s parents are tall, the child will probably be tall, too. Second is hormones. A child whose pituitary gland, thyroid gland, adrenal gland, and ovaries or testicles work properly can be pretty certain that he or she will develop normally, even if development is slow at first. Third, normal growth requires a proper diet with the right amount of proteins, sugars, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Children who are poor and cannot afford a good diet will not grow as tall as those who can eat properly. Fourth, illnesses that last a long time may slow down a child from reaching his full development and growth. When the child has fully recovered from such an illness, he usually catches up on his growth and mental development.

Growth doesn’t take place evenly. There are spurts during which a child grows quickly, and there are times when he doesn’t seem to grow at all. The first really big period of increased growth generally occurs between the ages of five and seven years. The second period of extremely rapid growth starts between the ages of ten and twelve years in girls, and twelve and sixteen years in boys. This means that girls of eleven and twelve tend to be taller than boys the same age. However, there isn’t any difference in the speed of mental development between boys and girls of the same age.

Some children are pretty unhappy because they are smaller than their playmates and schoolmates. Frequently they ask their parents to see if something can be done to correct the situation. If the child is healthy and his growth has not been slowed by a long- lasting illness or a gland condition, very little can be done to speed his growth. However, if he is small because of a gland condition or a long-lasting illness, it is possible to speed growth through medical treatment. But remember, the late growers usually catch up to the early growers all by themselves.

If your mother has a record of how tall you were when you were two years of age, you can get a pretty good idea of how tall you will be when you’re all grown. Just take your height at two years of age, and double it! If you were three feet tall when you were two years old, you will be six feet tall when you are fully grown.

By X-raying the bones of the wrists, doctors can sometimes tell how much more a child is going to grow. However, this isn’t a very valuable test unless the child is twelve to fourteen years of age.

Inheritence High Blood Pressure Symptoms, Characteristics Eye Color and Sickle-cell Anemia

Filed Under What Goes Inside Us | April 29th, 2007

Inheritance means that we get certain of our traits, our physical appearance, and some of our mental abilities from our parents. We say that these things are passed on to us from our mother and father through their genes. Of course, we can’t always tell specifically what we inherited from one parent or the other, but we have learned a good deal about some inherited things. For example, if a child’s mother has blood that is type A, and the father has type B, then the child will have type A or type B blood. He will not have type 0 or type AB because he has not inherited the genes for those blood types from either parent.


Physical traits or characteristics such as eye color, hair color, and other things, are inherited according to Mendel’s law, This means we can often tell In advance whether a child will have blue or brown eyes, or will turn out to be a blond or a brunette.

It is thought that highly intelligent people are more likely to have highly intelligent children than are people of normal or lower intelligence. This is not always true because, once in a while, highly intelligent people become ineffective parents, and less bright people become excellent parents. In other words, the way a child is brought up may be more important than the kind of brain he inherits. It is possible that “highly intelligent” people may be so busy with their own interests that they pay too little attention to their children, or they spoil their children by giving in to them too often. Thus a child who has inherited exceptional genes may not turn out well. On the other hand, parents who admit that they are not terribly bright themselves may spend a great deal of time teaching their children and encouraging them to learn, and those children may turn out better than the ones who inherited such good 1 genes.

Some of the most common inherited traits are the color of our skin, the color of our eyes, the color of our hair, our height, our blood type, and our general appearance. We realize though that our mother and father may not look very much alike. Therefore, if the mother has blue eyes and the father has brown eyes, we might inherit either blue or brown eyes. If they both have brown eyes, then, of course, we are more likely to have brown eyes. Frequently, a very tall man will marry a very short woman. Then their children can turn out to be short, or medium, or tall. But if a tall man marries and has children with a tall woman, then most of their children will be tall. And, if a short man marries and has children with a short woman, then most of their children will be short.

A good number of illnesses and defects are carried through the genes and can be inherited. Fortunately, many of the genes causing defects or diseases are recessive genes. This means that they are not very strong, and either may not have any influence on a child or may cause defects or disease only once in a very rare while.

In the past twenty or thirty years, doctors have studied inherited defects and diseases very carefully in order to prevent as many of them as possible. They have found that some conditions can be treated successfully by special medicines and diets. They have also found that giving the proper advice to people before they have children may prevent children from being born with an inherited disease or defect. For example, if a man with diabetes marries a woman with diabetes, the chances are that most of their children will develop diabetes. And if a man with a blood condition known as a positive sickle- cell trait marries a woman with the same positive sickle-cell trait, most of their children will develop a disease called sickle-cell anemia. To prevent this situation, the men and women who carry these genes may be advised to adopt children rather than to have them naturally. And we know that adopted children can be just as fine and wonderful as the children parents have themselves.

Most inherited detects in newborns don’t amount to much, such as an extra toe or extra finger, or even an extra nipple. These can be removed easily by a surgeon and the child will be as normal as can be.

Nature is really wonderful, because most newborn children are perfect. Ninety-seven out of a hundred newborn babies are absolutely perfectly formed, and most of the defects in the other three children are not serious. A lot of them, like an extra toe or an extra nipple, can be corrected easily by surgery. The saddest defects are the ones in which the child’s mind has not developed properly. But even among this small group of mentally handicapped children, we now know a great deal about how to make their lives happy. And, luckily, mental defects are not inherited very often, unless there are mentally handicapped people in both the mother’s and the father’s family.

Child Development, Saving Umbilical Cord, Blood Banking Storage, Stem Cells Collection

Filed Under What Goes Inside Us | April 29th, 2007

The baby’s footprints are taken and are placed on a special chart that already has the mother’s fingerprint on it. This makes sure that the baby doesn’t get mixed up with another newborn child.

Girls and boys who are born in hospitals today are taken care of as if they were precious jewels. After holding the newborn baby aloft by his feet to allow any mucus to run out, the doctor or his assistant will then take a small rubber tube connected to a suction machine and will suck out any further mucus that may be left behind in the mouth or nose. This will permit the baby to breathe more freely. Then a clamp, which is allowed to stay in place for about a day, is placed across the umbilical cord. The cord is then cut, and the baby is handed to a nurse who will cover it with blankets and place it in a warm birth crib. As soon as the newborn baby is seen to be breathing smoothly and as soon as its color appears to be normal, here are some other things that
are done:

1. A drop of a specially prepared medicine is placed in each eye. This will prevent the child from getting an eye infection.

2. A band with the mother’s name on it and whether the baby is a boy or girl is placed around the baby’s wrist. This makes absolutely certain that the baby is not mixed up with another baby that has just been born.

3. The baby’s footprints are taken and are placed alongside each other on a special chart that already has the mother’s fingerprint on it. This makes doubly, absolutely sure that the baby doesn’t get mixed up with another newborn child.

4. A crib card is made up showing the mother’s name, whether the child is a girl or a boy, and the hour and. date of birth. This makes triply, absolutely, sure that the baby won’t get mixed up with another child.

As a further means of completely identifying the baby, a band is placed around his wrist It matches one that the mother herself wears.

To avoid hospital mix-ups, the baby’s footprints are recorded. The mother’s fingerprint will be added to the same card later.

5. Soon after birth, the infant is examined by a pediatrician. This is a doctor who is specially trained in caring for babies and children, He will look the baby over to make sure there is nothing wrong with him. The pediatrician will be particularly careful to the the baby’s eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and mouth. Then he measure the head to see if it is the right size. Next, he will go over the bones to make sure t none of them are out of place or were broken during childbirth (We must remember that a new born child’s bones are pre-delicate, and once in a gr while they can get injured during childbirth).

The doctor will then exam the heart and lungs with a stereoscope, and will look at the abdomen to make sure everything is all right. The groin is checked to see if the baby has a hernia and to see if the male or female organs are normal. The baby is then turned onto its stomach and the back and the anus are checked out.

6. When the pediatrician has finished with his examination, the child is sent to a nursery where other newborns are staying. know how to take care of the baby’s eyes, ears, and mouth; and, of course, they know how to change the diapers and keep the baby clean. They also know how to help a new mother take care of her baby herself.

The bones are examined for any evidence of fracture, and the spinal column is checked for defects.

7. Babies usually do not nurse or take a bottle until eight to twelve hours after they are born. Then they are fed about every four hours. Along with the milk they Nurseries in all good hospitals have nurses who are specially trained in taking care of newborn infants. They know the proper temperature for the nursery and for the baby’s crib; they know what to feed the baby; they know when to bathe the baby; they know how to inspect the baby’s skin and how to take care of the damped-off umbilical cord; they will get from their mother’s breasts, or from a bottle if their mother doesn’t nurse them, infants are given water to drink.

The initial examination also includes height and chest measurements and weighing the baby

8. Babies often lose weight for a few days after they are born, but they regain it quickly. The average girl weighs from six and a half to seven pounds when she is born, and the average boy weighs from seven to seven and a half pounds. Newborn babies are not allowed to go home from the hospital unless they weigh at least five and a half pounds. Since some babies are born early—after only seven or eight months inside the mother’s uterus—they may weigh only three or four pounds when they are born. Such babies are called premature, and they have to stay in the hospital for a few days or weeks after the mother has gone home. Most of them, however, get to be five and a half pounds within a few weeks, and then they can join their families at home.

You can’t tell what a child is eventually going to look like when you first see him after he has been born. The heads of newborn babies may look out of shape because of molding that takes place as they pass out of their mother’s body. This means the bones overlap to make the head smaller so it can pass more easily out of the uterus and vagina. Within several days after birth, however, the bones of the head to their normal shape and the baby’s begins to look much nicer, Sometimes, the nose is flattened out as the head is passing down the birth canal, and this, too, may make the child look kind of funny when he is born. But within few days, the nose returns to its normal shape, too. Loads of children look bowlegged, when they are born, but they really aren’t. And some children are born with red blotches and hair all over their - bodies. All this disappears quickly, and by the time an infant is a week or two old, everyone will think he or she is the most beautiful child in the world!

You can’t tell what a child is eventually going to look like when you first see him after he has been born.