728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › General › Double the Fun

Double the Fun

Guiding Your Twins Through Puberty

By Teri Brown

Pages:  1  2  3  

Not Alike in All Ways
But why would twins develop at different rates in the first place? Aren't they alike?

The answer is yes and no. Dr. Unger says that the timing of pubertal development has a strong familial component. Girls generally begin their periods and begin developing about the same time as their mothers did. Boys may also follow their father's developmental patterns. There is also normal variation of the timing of onset of puberty.

"Therefore, dizygotic twins would have the same variation as siblings who are not twins," says Dr. Unger. "Monozygotic, or identical twins, who have the same genetic material should enter puberty at approximately a similar time, but there still can be some natural variation."

Dr. Unger suggests having your twins evaluated for endocrine problems if there is a large discrepancy in the timing of onset of puberty in identical twins. "This evaluation could be to determine early onset of puberty, or late onset, depending on associated symptoms and the growth pattern," says Dr. Unger. "In some cases, a simple bone age, which is obtained by taking an X-ray of the wrist, can determine if development is normal. In other situations, a referral to an endocrinologist might be beneficial."

The Issue of Privacy
Privacy is important at this age, even between twins of the same sex, as Trina Lambert, mother to 10-year-old fraternal twins, has discovered. Lambert, a stay-at-home mom from Englewood, Colo., recently bought her daughter her first bra and in doing so found out just how sensitive her daughter is about her twin brother knowing anything about her development.

"She is wanting the privacy already, and he is not," says Lambert. "She wants to talk to me privately about her bra or a certain boy, but her brother always seems to know when she is talking, and he appears just in time to jump in on the conversation."

Pages:  1  2  3  


Want to see more?