Eating Disorders Invade Elementary Schools

By Hugh C. McBride

As any parent of a young child can attest, mealtime can be one of the most challenging parts of the day, featuring (among other rituals) refusals to eat certain foods, complaints about the menu, and arguments over who got the biggest serving of dessert.

For some families, though, problems like these seem like little more than child’s play. Reports from around the world indicate that a surprising number of young children are suffering from eating disorders that, if left untreated, can be deadly.

“Doctors are seeing eating disorders at ever-younger ages, a phenomenon experts partly blame on a culture that idealizes thinness,” Canwest News Service writer Sharon Kirkey wrote in a Dec. 15, 2008 article in the Canadian newspaper The National Post.

Anorexic in Elementary School

The vast majority of eating disorder cases still involve teenage girls and young adult women, but recent years have seen increases in the development of the disorders in older women, boys and young men, and children.

“It’s no longer now uncommon to admit 10-, 11- or 12-year-olds for anorexia nervosa,” Professor Susan Sawyer, director of the centre for adolescent health at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, said in an Aug. 31, 2006 article in The Age newspaper. “This is a real phenomenon.”

Sawyer is not the only expert to note a recent rise in the number of prepubescent children who are exhibiting symptoms of disordered eating, or who are unduly worried about their weight:

* According to a March 26, 2007 article on the British news website MailOnline, more than 200 pre-teens in Britain and Ireland were diagnosed with eating disorders over a 13-month period that began in March 2005. The youngest child to be diagnosed during that period was a 6-year-old who had anorexia nervosa.

* The anorexia information website Mirror Mirror reports that an estimated 40 percent of 9-year-olds in the United States have dieted in an attempt to lose weight.

* Suzanne Horgan, founder of Ireland’s Eating Disorder Resource Centre of Ireland, told the Independent newspaper that she is aware of children as young as 7 who are suffering from anorexia.

‘If You’re Not Slim, You’re Not In’

Though identifying the cause of an eating disorder at any age involves the analysis of a number of complex factors, many experts point toward unhealthy physical standards within the popular culture as a primary reason for the recent increase in young children with eating disorders.

“We can’t put any one reason on why this is happening, but society is becoming more obsessed with image,” Horgan said in a Nov. 17, 2008 Independent article. “Children are picking up an awful lot more now than we did when we were kids. It’s just unbelievable in terms of them losing their innocence.”

In the same Independent article, Dr. John Griffin of St. Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin echoed Sawyer’s comments. “I think it’s due to a subtle programming or conditioning that kids get from their earliest days. There has been a huge shift in the last 40 years towards slimness in the western world,” Griffin said. “If you’re not slim, you’re not in.”

About Eating Disorders

The two most common eating disorders among individuals of all ages are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexic individuals eat excessively small amounts of food, starving their bodies in an attempt to achieve ever-changing “ideals” of thinness. People who suffer from bulimia may eat normal-to-large meals, but will immediately “purge” by forcing themselves to vomit or by ingesting laxatives or diuretics.

Individuals who are afflicted with an eating disorder are at risk for a wide range of health conditions, including malnutrition, dehydration, hypertension, vitamin deficiencies, and gastrointestinal disorders. In cases of young sufferers, the effects of the disorders can be magnified because they are impacting a body that is not yet fully developed.

Signs & Symptoms

The pediatric experts who contribute to the Mayo Clinic’s website advise parents to pay particular attention to behavior, appearance, and attitude when evaluating their children for the presence of an eating disorder. If any of the following descriptors apply to your child, further investigation is called for, and immediate intervention may be necessary:

* Losing an excessive amount of weight
* Skipping meals or following a highly restrictive diet
* Regularly going into the bathroom immediately after a meal
* Exercising obsessively
* Using laxatives or diuretics without a medical necessity
* Becoming overly concerned about appearance, weight, and body size
* Making disparaging comments about others because of their weight or size

How to Help

To reduce the likelihood that your children will suffer from an eating disorder, maintain an active, positive presence in their lives, and make sure that your home is a healthy environment that features family meals, regular amounts of physical activity, and a mindset that rejects what Sawyer refers to as “the increasing portrayal of highly idealized notions of what it means to be beautiful.”

Talk to your children about how to resist negative influences and develop a positive self-image. And, perhaps most important of all, be sure to model appropriate behaviors by not obsessing over your own weight, and never criticizing them or anyone else because of their physical appearance.