Health Tip: As Your Daughter Enters Puberty

(HealthDay News) -- Puberty can be a bewildering time for girls, but your daughter is likely to adapt more easily if she knows what to expect, says The Children''s Hospital Medical Center of Akron, Ohio.

Tell your child that it''s normal for:

• One breast to grow more quickly than the other, and to stay uneven in size.
• Hips and thighs to widen.
• Hair to grow under her armpits and in her pubic area.
• Skin to become thicker and more oily as her oil glands get more active.
• Sweat glands to become more active.
• Hands and feet to grow bigger.
• Appetite and weight to increase.
• Vaginal discharge to begin six months to a year before she starts her period.

-- Felicity Stone