Keeping her a kid as long as possible

By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Quality time: Rory and Beth Sturm know their daughter Cheyenne, 12, is going through "a lot of stress and a big change," Beth says. So they keep up with a family tradition of hiking and "geocaching."

EnlargeCloseBy Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Quality time: Rory and Beth Sturm know their daughter Cheyenne, 12, is going through "a lot of stress and a big change," Beth says. So they keep up with a family tradition of hiking and "geocaching."

Now, as a mom, Donahue says she has spent the past decade trying to prevent her own daughter from maturing too early. Donahue, 38, of Roanoke, Va., buys only hormone-free meat and organic milk. She cooks dinner every night and, for a time, even raised her own free-range chickens. She encourages her daughter, now 10, to play outside.

"If I can buy her even two more years of childhood, I want to try," Donahue says.

In many cases, the timing of puberty is set by genes; girls mature at about the same age their mothers did, says pediatric endocrinologist Paul Kaplowitz, author of Early Puberty in Girls.

But delaying a girl's first period by even one year reduces her lifetime exposure to estrogen, cutting future risk of breast cancer by 5% to 20%, says a 2007 report from the Breast Cancer Fund.

MORE: Girls hitting puberty earlier, but why?THE BOYS: Chemicals may threaten developmentParents can help their daughters cope with puberty by showing support and staying involved in their lives, experts say.

Rory and Beth Sturm, for example, try to be patient with 12-year-old Cheyenne, even as she experiences adolescent mood swings. Cheyenne needed a training bra at age 9

View the Original article