Are babies starting to develop at birth? This could be "mini puberty"

Author: Yu Zhe The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University

Reviewer: Xu Hao, deputy chief physician of Tongji Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology

One day, Xiaobei suddenly discovered that her 6-month-old son had an erection, which scared her. Could it be precocious puberty?

However, after the examination, the doctor told her not to worry, this situation was not precocious puberty, but a normal physiological phenomenon in early infancy, medically called "mini-puberty."

I've only heard that children will enter puberty when they are fifteen or sixteen years old. What is this phenomenon of mini-puberty?

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1. Definition of Mini-Puberty

Micro-puberty is equivalent to the prelude to puberty, simulating the growth and development of puberty.

Infants and young children under 6 months old may experience some physical phenomena that seem abnormal but are actually normal. The physical condition of the child at this time is very similar to the physical development during puberty, so it is called "micro-puberty".

This is actually a normal situation that all infants and young children will experience. It is like a small warm-up before the child grows up and experiences puberty. Parents do not need to worry too much. Generally, these physical conditions of boys will gradually disappear after 6 months, while girls generally continue until 1 year old, and some may continue until 2 years old.

However, if the child's adolescent physical conditions have not disappeared or even become more serious after exceeding the above age, it is very likely not a micro-puberty phenomenon. Parents should take the child to the hospital for examination and treatment in time.

Since micro-puberty is a normal phenomenon, how does it occur?

2. Causes of Mini-Puberty

Micro-puberty is the result of system debugging and operation in the human body.

When a pregnant woman is about to give birth in the third trimester, the estrogen in the mother's body enters the fetus through the placenta and affects the fetus' body. Even after the child is born, some estrogen will remain in the body. This is a common phenomenon for newborns, but not every newborn will show it particularly obviously.

When the umbilical cord is cut, the child's body is completely separated from the mother's body, and the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis is quickly established. The hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary gland to secrete gonadotropin, which stimulates the development of sexual organs and the secretion of sex hormones. This axis is very important for the growth and development of the child's body.

When a child is just born, the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis has just been established and is not very stable. It is in the "trial operation stage", which causes the hormone level in the body to remain high, similar to the hormone level during puberty, causing the child's body to produce some developmental phenomena similar to puberty.

Just like debugging a system in the body, the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis will gradually become stable after being debugged. As the secretion of sex hormones in the child's body plummets, the micro-puberty state will slowly disappear[1].

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3. The manifestation of micro-puberty

Every child responds differently to sex hormones and exhibits different physical conditions.

Generally speaking, boys experience a slight increase in testicle size and erection of the penis under the stimulation of high concentrations of male hormones. Some children may develop acne on their faces for a short period of time, but it will heal quickly.

Girls will generally develop obvious breasts under the influence of estrogen. If the estrogen concentration is too high, there may also be a small amount of bleeding like menstruation during puberty.

The above situations are physiologically normal, and the different performances of children are just individual differences. Parents can observe carefully, and if the child has pain or other physical discomfort, they should go to the hospital for treatment in time.

If a child only has minor symptoms of puberty, can we just leave it alone?

4. Micro-puberty requires continuous observation

Mini-puberty is a normal physiological phenomenon that does not require treatment, but the prerequisite is to confirm that the child is in mini-puberty. This requires parents to continue to observe whether the child's development is getting worse, whether there is precocious puberty, or whether other diseases have occurred.

If parents are worried about their child's condition, it is recommended that they go to the hospital and make a diagnosis through scientific examinations.

Congenital hypogonadism can be diagnosed in advance during the early stages of puberty[2]. During puberty, the hypothalamus controls and promotes the pituitary gland to secrete a large amount of gonadotropin, which promotes testicular development and testosterone secretion. Testosterone maintains male secondary sexual characteristics and sexual function, but certain congenital or acquired diseases can lead to testosterone deficiency, causing delayed puberty in boys, and in severe cases, hypogonadism. This disease is relatively rare, with 1 to 10 people per 100,000 likely to develop the disease, with a male to female ratio of 4:1. A very small number of patients can be diagnosed in infancy (within 6 months of birth) through hormone secretion testing. Since the hormone secretion level of infants and young children within 6 months is very high, similar to that of normal puberty, the results of testing at this time are relatively clear. If the test results show a tendency towards pathological changes, timely intervention and treatment should be carried out, which is very beneficial for patients to control their condition[2].

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Mini-puberty is a normal phenomenon that every child will experience. Parents should not panic too much, but also should not ignore it. They should treat it with a normal mind. In life, they should carefully observe the physical condition of their children and go to the hospital for medical treatment in time if necessary.

References

[1] Zhang Silai. Grandparenting is not that simple: my grandparenting life. Beijing: China Women's Publishing House, 2020.

[2] Li Hongjun. 100 Years of Peking Union Medical College Hospital: Concepts of Diagnosis and Treatment of Men's Diseases. Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 2021.