Getting your player ready...
A new study finds that girls are more likely today than in the past to start developing breasts by age 7 or 8.
The research is just the latest in a flood of reports over the past decade that have led to concern about whether girls are reaching puberty earlier, and why it might be happening.
Increased rates of obesity are thought to play a major role because body fat can produce sex hormones. Some researchers also suspect environmental chemicals that mimic the effects of estrogen may be speeding up the clock on puberty, but that idea is unproved.
The new study is being published today in the journal Pediatrics.
