You've probably heard in the news about the 10-year-old girl in California who's been diagnosed with breast cancer. I heard about it several weeks ago and so I want to relieve your anxiety right now and quiet any fears.

This is highly unusual and very, very rare. So please don't panic and start trying to figure out how to get your child a mammogram!

There have been rare cases like this reported before over the last 2 decades. As you might realize, however (since you yourself have probably never before heard of this happening), it's not something that happens every day, or once a week, month or even year.

My heart goes out to her and her parents, who probably had to go to great lengths to get her accurately diagnosed and a treatment plan underway. It has to be heart wrenching when your child has just begun breast development and now may lose a breast before she was even aware that she was growing one.

How does a child get breast cancer? Well, I don't know the specifics of this child's pathology and, even if I did, would not be able to share it. I will mention, however, that there have been rare cases of boys as young as 7 being diagnosed with what is called secretory breast cancer. We hear about 1 of these cases every 4 to 5 years but they are not like the present situation.

Should you have your elementary school daughter start checking her breasts? No—because, since you are an observant mother, you'll notice if there's any reason for concern about her health.

How about middle school, then? Nope. Still too early.

High school? Well, junior and senior years of high school are a good time to start talking to your teen about doing the right things to reduce her risks "for the future": checking herself and practicing good lifestyle habits such as no smoking, no drinking alcohol, exercising regularly and watching fat intake.

But we don't, thank heavens, need to start scaring our kids.