Patient's question:
My daughter is 8 years old, and her breasts are slightly protruding. The first time, I noticed a slightly small and hard lump on her right nipple, unsure if it's normal. The local hospital said it was pseudodevelopment and that no medication was needed. I'm not reassured and would like to consult again to understand what pseudodevelopment means in children.Doctor's answer:
The breast development of a female baby during puberty usually begins after the age of eight, and if it starts before that, it is considered precocious puberty. If a baby shows breast development before the age of eight, it can be preliminarily diagnosed as precocious puberty. Clinically, precocious puberty is divided into true precocious puberty and pseudo-precocious puberty. For your baby's condition, an endocrinology ultrasound examination, sexual hormone laboratory tests, and bone age X-ray examination are needed for a comprehensive analysis to determine whether intervention is necessary. Your husband mentioned that your child's penis has some development. Precocious puberty is a common developmental disorder of the pediatric endocrine system, referring to a disease where a girl shows secondary sexual characteristics before the age of eight and a boy shows them before the age of nine.