Even as the though the number of obese children is reaching record levels and bringing adult diseases like Type 2 diabetes to the teenager, there is a new obsession with dieting has spread to younger and younger people like teenagers. With excess dieting and exercise it may lead to the risk of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. According to the National Eating Disorders Association about 42 percent of girls ranging from as young as third grade want to be thinner. About 81 percent of 10 year olds girls are afraid of being gat and about 51 percent of 9 and 10 year old girls are content with themselves when they are dieting.
This can lead to an unhealthy obsessing and it can lead on into the teen and adults years if not addressed. In many ways, this “fixation on weight at ever earlier ages comes at an inopportune time physiologically”. Dr. Marcie Schneider, the director of adolescent medicine at Greenwich Hospital, and Erica Leon, a registered dietitian, both said that “early adolescence as a time when a little bit of pudginess is necessary for proper growth, and youngsters wrestle constantly with their body image”. Erica Leon also said that there are a lot of kids on the fad diets like the South Beach and Atkins diets and that overweight children, who try these diets are at risk for developing eating disorders.
Dr. Katherine A. Halmi, who runs the eating disorder program at the Westchester Division of New York-Presbyterian Hospital in White Plains, said she had also “noticed an increase in younger patients. At the hospital there are 20 inpatient beds treating about 350 people a year. She said that in the last ten years “we've seen a gradual increase in children under 12...I just admitted an 11-year-old last night to our unit... youngest patient with anorexia was only 9 years old”. She explains how peer pressure has a lot to do with it and says that the problems are reaching younger girls. Dr. Halmi says that some come “from families who are very health-food oriented, and many have thin mothers who exercise a lot and are very preoccupied with what they're eating, or older sisters who are concerned about their appearance”.
She also thinks that “Magazines aimed at teenagers contribute a lot... The biggest factor with teens and preteens is their own peers”. Here is a quick film about eating disorders.
The video is from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRseSpdGC2s
Dr. Judy Scheel, the director of the Center for Eating Disorder Recovery in Mount Kisco explains the difference between Anorexia and Bulimia. She says that, Anorexia is a mental illness in which the person eats hardly enough to live. These people have a distorted thinking makes them think they are fat. Bulimia, a mental illness in which someone “binges on large amounts of food, then purges it through vomiting or the abuse of laxatives, is on the rise, and is surfacing in younger and younger patients, mostly girls”. Dr. Scheel says that about “90 percent of people with eating disorders are female, and often the male victims are on teams like wrestling and crew, where they must keep their weight low for competitive reasons”. Eating disorders are mainly suffered by the female population. Dr. Scheel believes that where “girls claim the eating disorder enables them to be thin, boys typically state their goal is to achieve or maintain a muscular but thin physique”. She states that the average onset for bulimia used to be “17, but to see teenagers age 14 and 15 with bulimia is common these days”. This is important for people to see the warning signs and get their children help early. I think it has a lot do with parenting and how the parents treat the child. I have friend who’s mother always and still tells her she doesn’t need to eat this is not a good role model for her to lose weight healthily when her own mother tells her not to eat.
Dr. Scheel explains how looking at the dynamics of the patient's family is important also. She says that ''Life is fast paced, and we have not taken a lot of time to really listen to our children, to have relationships with them...It's so much easier to deal with just the behavior, instead of the emotions.'' She says that the parents may “need different strategies to address such issues... I have seen every time is a miss in the relationship, in the attachment, with parents who are consumed with how a child does, not who she is, to, at the other extreme, gross infringement and abuse,'' similar to my friend I discussed earlier. She also describes the loving family who doesn’t ever ask how you are feeling etc. This is important for family members to not abuse their children about their weigh and also to listen to them when they are feeling down. Image is from
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