Childhood Eating Disorders

1. Dieting and Self-Image in Chilren

Most experts agree that, unless a child has serious weight issues, children can often stay healthy just by making healthier food choices. The media often portrays images of thinness as healthy and can leave many children self-conscious about their weight. Childhood eating disorders often develop when children take dieting to extreme methods. Often disorders are not about controlling weight but about controlling their self-image and their surroundings.

2. Is It a Disorder?

Refusal to eat is actually pretty common in children. Children refuse foods for a variety of reasons, and few of them have to do with dieting or having an eating disorder. For instances, when children taste food for the first time, they may refuse to eat it. Pediatricians often recommend that children try a food several different times in order to develop a true taste for the food. Texture is another common reason children refuse foods. Other reasons could be odor or color of the food.

3. Anorexia Nervosa

When a child develops an unhealthy image of himself and feels that the only way to better it is through extreme food refusal, anorexia nervosa can result. The child may be obsessed with food in unhealthy ways, measuring and re-measuring food portions before eating. When they do eat, the amounts are usually too small to be of maximum health benefit. They may also exercise several hours per day to lose weight that they think is affecting the way that others view them.

4. Bulimia

Bulimia is almost the opposite of anorexia. The bulimic child may binge on as many food products and calories as possible within a short period of time. After consuming the food, she then feels guilty and induces vomiting or takes laxatives as a way to rid her body of the food. The typical bulimia patient is a female who has serious self-esteem or depression issues that contribute to her eating disorder.

5. Causes of Eating Disorders and Treatment

It is difficult to decide what causes an eating disorder, primarily because it has many different roots. It tends to run in families; however, many children with an eating disorder are either under stress or experiencing depression. Girls may feel pressure to stay thin for popularity or sport reasons (such as ballet or modeling). Boys with eating disorders may be involved in a sport that requires certain weight limitations like boxing or wresting. Treatment begins with nutrition counseling and emphasizing the importance of healthy eating over the unhealthy eating patterns that the child has been using. Working with the child's perception of body image and re-introducing healthy food options is also needed, as well as close monitoring of calorie intake. In some children, hospitalization is required if they are severely hydrated or malnourished or if they are unable to stop binging and purging.