A nine-year-old has become the first transgender Cub Scout to be officially recognised by the Boy Scouts - just one week after it announced it would be accepting children who identified as being of the opposite sex after birth.

Joe Maldonado, from New Jersey, was welcomed into the Maplewood chapter of the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday night, his mother confirmed.

Kristie Maldonado described Joe as "glowing" when he put on his uniform and said she cried with happiness that her son had been accepted.

She said: "Once he got that uniform on, he was glowing. It was just beautiful."

"This is fun. I'm so proud," the boy said during the Tuesday night meeting, local newspaper The Record reported.

Joe, who was born a girl but showed signs of identifying as a boy at age two, had previously been a member of a different chapter of the Scouts last year but according to his mother was asked to leave by a Scout official who said parents had complained.

Last week the organisation's headquarters confirmed they had changed their policy of referring to the gender on birth certificates to determine eligibility and greeted Joe into the fold saying they were "welcoming Joe and the Maldonado family back into the Scouting community."

The Cub Scout is open to boys aged seven to 10 and is the first ofthree age groupings in the Scout program which also includes the Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts.