Parents Stretch Marks??

[MILgymFAM]

My DD has noticed lately (thanks to my younger DD pointing them out) that she has developed stretch marks on her hips and bottom. They are very noticeable, but luckily covered by her leo. They make her self conscious nonetheless. She is still a very thin girl, at around 5'5 and about 100lbs.. Her growth has been fairly gradual, as has her weight gain, over the past few years. I hadn't realized that stretch marks showed up outside of rapid weight gain. I am not sure what to tell her when she asks if this has anything to do with gymnastics, so I figured I would ask if anyone else's teen/preteen DD is dealing with this issue?

 

[COz]

She's just (un-)lucky enough to have fun skin.
I consider them tiger-stripes.

I'm short. Didn't have any rapid weight gain or height gain at any point.
I think I started getting stretch marks on my hips before the end of grade 6 and I just got more and more (encouraging hey?).

Doctors always commented and asked if I'd lost a lot of weight.

Now (just checked) I have white lines horizontally across my hips.
I also got horrendous stretch marks from pregnancy. Yay...

 

[COz]

So no, can happen and have nothing whatsoever to do with gymnastics.

 

[Kiwi]

I think it can still be related to fast growth, even if it seemed to happen gradually. I got them as a young teen and I was not overweight at all. I think it was just the fast growth rate during puberty.

 

[MabelSt]

I feel like most of stretch marks is just luck and genetics. I got them when I was pregnant though but my sister didn't, I think it's mostly luck. But she has them on her hips and stuff. It seems to depend on how resilient your skin is. I wonder if it's diet/vitamin C (collagen) related because my sister was eating a normal diet when she got them but when she was preggo she was eating super healthy, so maybe that helped her skin be more resilient? I don't know. I actually have some stretch marks (they're white now) under my arms that are from stretching too much- but I've never heard anyone else say that. But they were very deep and definitely from stretching. I remember when it happened in gym class- my skin burned, and they came out. I was thin at that time, but i was recovering from being anorexic so I don't know if that's why (my skin didn't have the vitamins it needed?) I really don't know- but I don't think it's worth stressing about because there's really nothing you can do to control whether you get them. I think there are some laser treatments that help nowdays if she's sensitive about it?

 

[COz]

I think it can still be related to fast growth, even if it seemed to happen gradually. I got them as a young teen and I was not overweight at all. I think it was just the fast growth rate during puberty.

I didn't have any kind of fast growth rate and started to get them before puberty!
Clearly my skin felt that growing at all was a bit of a stretch (ha!)

I must have my father's skin. My mother proudly said "I didn't get any stretch marks when I was pregnant". Thanks Mum. Really helpful

 

[Iwannabemargo]

I got them too around 14, as has been said, its just skin type

 

[COz]

I don't know about your daughter, but I'm certainly feeling better about mine!
I never knew anyone else with stretch marks as a teenager, but then I guess I never asked anyone either. Perhaps they are more common than I thought!

 

[l.c.o]

DH has them on his back, they developed when he was 14-16. He was growing, but not a ton and not overnight. He's always been self-conscious about them.

I got them while growing my kids.

Maybe your DD did a bit of growing that was just a bit "spurtier" than other times? I doubt it was the gymnastics... Otherwise I'm sure we'd see many, many gymnasts with their own tiger stripes (cue Katy Perry).

 

[momnipotent]

I got them as a teenager-from growing up, not out (we won't talk about the pregnancy stretch marks) and they eventually faded. I was a diver, but I don't think they were related to that either and definitely not a gymnastics thing at all...