Not Just for Teenage Girls: Eating Disorders Affect Kids of All Ages
(posted February 21, 2008)
More than 10 million young women in the United States suffer from an eating disorder. However, it’s no longer unusual to see adolescent boys or kids as young as seven being treated for anorexia or bulimia, say experts from the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center, the research arm of Bradley Hospital, the nation’s first psychiatric hospital for children.
“Although eating disorders are most common in teenage girls, children are presenting with eating disorders at younger and younger ages–we’re talking second and third graders. Also, we tend to forget that more than one million boys and men also suffer from eating disorders,” says Robyn Mehlenbeck, PhD, a child psychologist with the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center and director of training with the Hasbro Children’s Partial Hospital Program.
One of the dangers, she says, is that some kids, especially teenagers, are very good at hiding their eating disorder from their families, often because either the goal of losing weight becomes an obsession that they do not want to stop or they feel ashamed and embarrassed. However, the longer an eating disorder goes unchecked and untreated, the more difficult it is to overcome, never mind the significant physical damage it can cause.
“That’s why it’s important that all parents–regardless of whether they have daughters or sons, teenagers or grade school kids–know the red flags for an eating disorder,” she adds.
During National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, February 24 to March 1, Mehlenbeck urges everyone, especially parents, to learn and recognize the risk factors and signs of an eating disorder, including:
- Frequent dieting
- Skipping meals, consistently refusing snacks, rituals around eating, and/or not wanting to eat with the family
- Exercising a lot
- Distorted body image or preoccupation with body or weight
- Going to the restroom repeatedly after meals or snacks
- Comparisons of size, shape or body parts to peers or other role models
- High interest in thin models, movie stars, musicians
- Comments on how to change looks or weight to enhance sport performance or scores
- Weight-related teasing by peers
- Difficulty concentrating
- Less energy than normal and/or mood changes, like irritability
- Social withdrawal from peers
The good news, Mehlenbeck says, is that eating disorders are treatable. If parents suspect their child may have an eating disorder, they should share their concerns with their pediatrician. Treatment options for eating disorders vary, although Mehlenbeck notes that the best outcomes are those in which the family is involved in the treatment.