Eating disorders on rise, striking younger and younger kids

3rd December 2008

Eating disorders on rise, striking younger and younger kids

posted in Body Image, Eating Disorders, Health, Nutrition & Fitness, Personal, Pop Culture |

I’ve been writing for some time with concerns on how the current emphasis — some, including me, would say obsession — on the prevention of childhood obesity is contributing to rising numbers of eating disorders amongst adolescents and children and at younger and younger ages. Children today are arguably larger on average than their predecessors, but today’s kids also appear to have hit the fat ceiling. In recent years, childhood obesity rates have stalled, plateauing at about 32 percent for all children under 18 during 1999 – 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eating disorder cases, however, remain steadily on the rise, especially in youngsters.

Case in point: The Rogers Memorial Hospital in Wisconsin plans to open a child and adolescent inpatient eating disorder program in January 2009. Rogers already treats children and teens with eating disorders — and who can afford to pay for inpatient care, a benefit denied by many health insurance plans — but the new program will provide more specialized care, as well as additional space to treat the increasing numbers of younger children developing eating disorders at alarming rates. Dr. Tracey Cornella-Carlson, who will head the program, says the average age of those suffering from eating disorders is dropping among girls and boys, with girls as young as 9 diagnosed, according to the federal Office on Women’s Health.

Cornella-Carlson attributes this age drop to several factors, including the emphasis schools place on health classes, perfectionist qualities, genetic predispositions and American culture in general, which idealizes thin female figures and muscular male physiques.

“Kids in fourth grade are now looking at the calories on their snack packages,” Cornella-Carlson explained.

I recently googled some information on my new bunnies and stumbled across a similar question and answers posed on Yahoo Answers. The site allows people to ask questions in a variety of subjects , which anyone can answer. Out of curiosity, I perused the “Diet and Fitness” section and was astonished and disheartened at the sheer numbers of questions posed by girls under 14 on the best ways to lose weight fast and for pro-ana kind of advice. Ironically, for a topic that falls under the site’s “Health” category, actual health is rarely an issue of concern here. I was even more saddened by the dangerously unhealthy and disordered responses elicited from often the same demographic.

To date myself, my high school graduating class celebrated its 10-year reunion last fall. All students then had to take a half-year of health class during our freshmen year, of which just a couple weeks at most were spent teaching nutrition. I’m sure I learned about calories (and other nutrients), but I still didn’t fully understand what they were or their relevance to health until I developed an eating disorder in my early 20s. My younger siblings attended the same high school and both graduated within the past five years. To my understanding, the health curriculum has changed very little since my attendance more than a decade ago. I wholeheartedly agree that good nutrition and fitness should be taught and emphasized in schools. I even once became involved in a local campaign that lobbied Cincinnati Public schools to adopt a healthy school lunch program similar to that undertaken by the Appleton school district of Wisconsin. However I vehemently disagree with current school nutritional approaches that, amongst other things: categorize food into “bad” and “good” moral categories; outlaw and demonize certain foods as off-limits; list the BMIs of children on report cards; single out and ostracize fat kids; present exercise as an activity to be undertaken solely to prevent fatness; promote dieting or commercial diet plans; and generally anything that does not recognize or embrace the natural body shape diversity of all people and that further shames and stigmatizes people of size.

DARE and other school anti-drug campaigns today already teach marijuana to be the “gateway” drug to a horrible life of drug abuse and addiction. In a sense, dieting is the “gateway drug” to developing an eating disorder. Not everyone who diets will develop one, but an overwhelming number of eating disorders evolves from a simple diet gone terribly wrong. And the data are striking – talking about weight, worrying too much about diet, dieting, obsessing over food, calories and weight increases the risk not only of eating disorders, but also of becoming overweight and obese. Eating disorders are the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. Our national health goal should be to make them less prevalent, not more .

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1 On December 3rd, 2008, Piffle said:

Gah, my four-year-old son told me the other day he didn’t want to be fat; and my daughter, eight years old, 50% percentile for weight and 75% for height, is worried about jiggly thighs. It’s ridiculous, and totally due to school as we don’t talk like that at home. When I tell the kids about nutrition I emphasize that we need enough calories to function and that all the macronutrients are needed, fat, protein, and carbs.

Plus my girl has just started (this is the third day) on Concerta for ADHD and I’m a lot more concerned that she’ll lose weight than anything else.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm

2 On December 3rd, 2008, Rachel said:

Piffle — I tried Concerta and it didn’t do a thing for me except make me nauseous and give me headaches. I was on a low dose, of course, but decided 30 days was enough of that. The first ADD drug I tried was Strattera. I discontinued that after a month too because of the side effects, but if you’re worried about weight loss, you might want to consider it. It’s the only ADD drug that isn’t a stimulant (stimulants are what affects appetite), which is why my doc first prescribed it for me and others like me who have ADD and a history of eating disorders.

I’m now on Adderall and have graduated up from a low dose to a standard adult dose. I noticed a loss of appetite after each initial dosage upping, but it gradually fades away with time. Even on those days when I don’t feel hungry during the day, I always eat lunch because I know I will be ravenous when the meds wear off in the evening. So rest assured, the appetite suppression side effects of ADD drugs aren’t permanent. Plus, there’s strong evidence that suggests that people who have ADD but aren’t being treated for it may be at more of a risk to develop disordered eating behaviors. I recently had a nurse ask me if the medication is worth it for kids with ADD. Her daughter, also 8, had recently been diagnosed with ADD but she was hesitant to put her on meds for it. I told her that had I known as a kid that I had ADD and then had the opportunity to take medication to treat it, I totally would have. For me, at least, the medication really makes a difference. Hopefully this all provides some reassurance.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm

3 On December 3rd, 2008, Emily said:

Whenever I have extra sanity points saved up, I wander into Yahoo Answers and try to talk twelve-year-olds out of starving themselves. I don’t know if it does any good, but I try.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm

4 On December 3rd, 2008, Bree said:

I’m not surprised that eating disorders for young children are increasing. Kids are not stupid and they pick up on the messages of big bodies being unhealthy and unattractive. Schools are teaching them to assign morality to food, gym class is not for enjoyment of moving their bodies, but to promote a win-at-any-cost, get-that-ugly-fat-off-of-you attitude. They read and hear their favorite celebrities talk bad about their bodies and their fad diets.

It’s bad enough our thin obsession is being pushed on adults, but there is no excuse to hate on little bodies. In our zeal to get rid of fat people, we have overlooked young kids’ bodies are still growing and still changing. To manually alter that poses dangers of all kinds.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm

5 On December 3rd, 2008, Maddie said:

Oh God, yes. I’ve been saying this all year. Grim prediction: in ten years time (or less), the major health crisis facing the NHS is going to be the dramatic increase in eating disorders. It’s totally time to train up to counsel all those poor kids who have their local councils and visiting nurses and all the rest of them marching into schools and homes to tell them that being fat is bad and ugly, and makes you unattractive and a bad person, and that they’ll fucking take you away from your parents if they don’t keep you thin.

The thing is, only two people ever told me I was fat as a child. Two was more than enough – it’s only now, twenty two years later, that I’m eating in a mostly normal way. I can’t even fathom the pain of becoming part of some social worker’s government targets, of being told you’re so wrong that the government is fucking making laws against you.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 3:55 pm

6 On December 3rd, 2008, Rachel said:

Grim prediction: in ten years time (or less), the major health crisis facing the NHS is going to be the dramatic increase in eating disorders.

Maybe, but I doubt that the public will see it that way. Binge eating disorder already eclipses both anorexia and bulimia combined, but it’s often not even considered in discussions of eating disorders. In fact, it still isn’t even recognized as a disorder unto itself by the DSM-IV. I think binge eating cases will continue to grow even more so than rates of anorexia and bulimia, but since these sufferers often tend to be overweight or obese, their numbers will just be further assimilated instead into the so-called growing obesity epidemic. So, in a sense, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: Current anti-obesity campaigns contribute to the development of binge eating disorder cases. As these sufferers gain weight as the result of their disorder, as most inevitably do, it, in turn, only further amplifies arguments for even more of the same kinds of campaigns. It’s all a vicious cycle.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 4:17 pm

7 On December 3rd, 2008, Piffle said:

Thanks for your reply Rachel, I didn’t even know that ADHD was a risk for ED. I think the Concerta is working for my girl, the other option her doctor suggested was Adderall XR so that she only had to take it once a day, and could avoid the stigma of visiting the nurse’s office every day. She hasn’t complained about naseua or headaches so far, and I try to get breakfast in her first so that she has some calories to work with.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 6:20 pm

8 On December 3rd, 2008, Sandy said:

I have to say, this scared the shit out of me. Like a poster above, my 4yr old son is 50% for weight and 75% for height…the nurse as the Ped office asks me every time if he is eating well until she realizes how tall he is…the other day my SIL made the comment that he was “getting fat” because the way he was sitting his tummy kinda wrinkled over his pants band. It was all I could do to not scream at her right then and there! WTF … saying my son, IN FRONT OF HIM NO LESS, was fat just because he tummy wrinkled over his pants? I told DH he HAD to talk to her and let her know that is totally un-acceptable to speak about weight to him (or any of my kids for that matter).

Just as a side note, she and my MIL both have disordered eating…so I am so scared that they are going to rub off on them!!

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 6:24 pm

9 On December 3rd, 2008, Miranda said:

How absolutely sad this is. On one hand, you want children to learn how to eat healthy foods and exercise (not in the traditional sense but playing a sport, riding their bikes or just getting away from the computer or game system) but the idea that children even consider starving themselves is awful. We as a society NEED to change. Fourth graders, nor anyone else, should be striving to fit the mold of this unattainable image.

posted on December 3rd, 2008 at 8:13 pm

10 On December 4th, 2008, Melissa said:

It’s totally shocking that children have this stuff on their minds!
I’ve been told lately that a cousin of mine’s daughter who is in grade 1 refuses to eat all day because her mother doesn’t eat hardly at all. Her mother won’t let her eat certain foods, telling her that she doesn’t want a fat daughter.
She’s 7 and the school authorities and daycare have called her house concerned that she’s showing anorexic signs because she won’t eat lunch, snack or supper. Her doctor has even told her parents that she’s under weight but her mother chooses to ignore everything and keeps on being proud that her daughter isn’t fat.

I don’t even know what to think about a mother who can do that, but it’s obvious she has an undiagnosed eating disorder herself.

So not only do children have to endure the media images and now the stuff that’s being taught at school, but they can adopt unhealthy attitudes first and foremost from their parents. It makes me feel very sad to see this little girl starve herself and with parents who haven’t got a clue how much their damaging her.

posted on December 4th, 2008 at 3:50 am

11 On December 4th, 2008, TonyV said:

You can see it all around you. My own niece and nephews are little eating machines. Their mom doles out love in the form of sugar by the truckload. It’s really sad.

Thanks for the great post.

posted on December 4th, 2008 at 7:47 am

12 On January 8th, 2009, Eating disorder recovery easier for male athletes? » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] obesity. But that’s a whole other discussion, one I’ve gone into more detail on this here and [...]

posted on January 8th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

13 On January 12th, 2009, Food for thought » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] and it’s gotten us, well, only fatter. The sad thing is, as obesity rates go up and with them attendant and often counterproductive programs to battle them, so too will the rates of eating disorders continue to rise. Click to Bookmark [...]

posted on January 12th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

14 On January 26th, 2009, Eating Disorders In Children said:

[...] weight? More and more, children are becoming an active pa… Read more… Eating disorders on rise, striking younger and younger kids I’m not surprised that eating disorders for young children are increasing. Kids are not [...]

posted on January 26th, 2009 at 2:05 pm

15 On March 24th, 2009, AED releases awesome new guidelines for childhood obesity programs » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] regular readers know, this is an issue I’ve been writing about for some time now — read here and here. Some of the group’s recommendations include (emphasis [...]

posted on March 24th, 2009 at 11:41 am