Abstract: Puberty is an essential stage of physical and sexual development in life. Nutrition is one of the most important factors affecting pubertal development onset and maintenance. Nutritional status during fetal, infancy, childhood and prepubertal period has a significant effect on puberty development and maintenance. Children with early nutritional deficiency not only are likely to suffer from sexual precocity but also show an increase in their risk of developing non-infectious diseases in later life. The low-birth-weight infants who have achieved growth catch-up in infancy and childhood period are at a higher risk of developing premature pubarche, polycystic ovary and metabolic syndrome. In addition, nutritional structure and diet quality are also important factors affecting sexual development in children and adolescents. Some dieting problems during adolescence, such as nervous anorexia and bulimia nervosa, may have bad effect on the normal sexual development. On the basis of the latest literature reports, this paper makes a brief review on the problems related to nutrition and pubertal development.

Key words: Sexual development, Nutrition, Puberty, Obesity, Intrauterine growth retardation, Children