This is just your regular puberty story, displaced a few years. I fail to understand the alarmist responses of the medical professionals. Why would they worry about pregnancy with someone age 9, but not age 11? The parents seem to suffer from a 'we are so special; our problems were so different' syndrome. Why would allowing someone aged 11 to watch porn be a larger issue than allowing your child aged 14 to watch porn? Since when is a child hitting his dad at 15 different from one hitting his dad at 17?
"Why would they worry about pregnancy with someone age 9, but not age 11?"
Uh, 11 is still early to experience puberty. And why do you think pediatricians are not worried about an 11 year old getting a girl pregnant?
The problem is that a 9 year old has even less experience and maturity than a 13 year old to deal with the challenges of puberty. And no peers to share the experience with. Society is set up to deal with children going through puberty at a specific age. The problem is that a 9 year old going through puberty is still a 9 year old in many respects, even a particularly bright 9 year old.
The worst thing about it is that they wanted to put him on severe medication with nasty side effects, some of which they can't even quantify. A lesser parent would have gone for that without consulting their child. The arrogance of the medical profession to just 'throw drugs at the problem' astounds me.
As for the 'we're so different' aspect of it, I disagree with you there. It does seem to present a major challenge, and it's a personal story, very well written, and one which I for one really enjoyed reading.
The nasty side effects of the drug have to be weighed against the nasty side effects of the condition that the drug is meant to treat, and from the article, the parents didn’t do that. The kid hated needles and didn’t want his balls to shrink (when oversized testicles was one of the symptoms of his condition) and that was the end of it.
I’m sure that lots of people with juvenile diabetes, when they were first diagnosed, hated the idea of injecting themselves with insulin every day, but they learned to cope. This child could have learned to cope.
ETA: According to a comment by the father toward the end, the endocrinologist agreed with the decision not to give drugs.
So, if he agreed with the decision not to give the drugs, why were they recommended in the first place?
Also, I don't think regulating someone's blood/sugar levels can be equated to altering the course of their puberty and shrinking their testicles. The damage could be untold and irreversible.
I don't share your faith in the medical system, and it's infallability (although many do a great job under difficult circumstances), and I'm definitely not alone there. Many respected cellular biologists are claiming that the medical profession has got it wrong in relation to treatment of many conditions.
I wouldn't call this a "regular" puberty story. The problems here aren't particularly unique in type, but they're extreme in severity, probably in large part because of the few years' displacement.
Comparing groups I taught, the gifted 9-year-olds were typically quite a bit less mature than even the remedial 12-year-olds. A few years more of experience and brain development does wonders for one's ability to make good decisions.
Moving into the basement, watching porn, clashing with your dad, making bad decisions about relationships and staying up late are all pretty standard male adolescent behaviors. The fact that he stayed up all night coding and went to college, and got through all of that shit early in life, are actually pretty encouraging.
