Conditions
Eating Disorders
Anorexia and bulimia can affect anyone, but they are most common in teenage girls. One in a hundred teenagers – 90 per cent of them girls – suffer from anorexia at some point, and for parents it’s very distressing to see your child suffering the weight loss, the obsession with dieting and the distorted self-image associated with an eating disorder. In severe cases the problem can be fatal.
For both anorexic and bulimic kids, weight loss is an obsession. Anorexics won’t eat, will appear significantly underweight (15 per cent below their recommended body mass index), and yet believe they are fat. Even though anorexics can develop a fear of eating, food itself can also become a secret obsession. Anorexia usually starts during the teens, but if kids haven’t reached puberty yet, anorexia can delay it. In girls, periods can become irregular or stop, and there’s a general lack of energy, moodiness, and inability to concentrate or sleep.
Bulimia means kids binge on food and then either make themselves sick to get rid of it, or use a laxative. ‘Purging’ can happen anything from a couple of times a week to a couple of times a day. The symptoms and consequences of bulimia are similar to that of anorexia, with other issues such as dehydration and kidney problems caused by regular vomiting or use of laxatives.
Eating disorders have no one specific cause but experts agree on a number of contributory factors. For some kids, pictures of skinny models can make them feel pressurised or inadequate about their own weight. Anxiety, depression or other problems at home may be a trigger. There may be a genetic predisposition too.
As well as the weight loss caused by eating disorders, keep an eye out for kids finding excuses not to eat, developing a new obsession with food or going to the loo straight after eating to get rid of it.
It can be very hard to talk to someone with an eating disorder about the problem. If you are worried, try and raise the topic gently, don’t knock their self-esteem and do talk to a school nurse or doctor. There’s a great deal of support available for sufferers and their families, and dozens of celebrities have described how they have overcome eating disorders and emerged from the problem healthy and fit.
Comments and Questions
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My daughter is 22, she has had a problem with food for a long time now. two years ago I dragged her to the doctors with a BMI of 16 and the doctor said she was ok. She started eating again and gained a little weight. Now she has gone back to eating only veg, fruit, a small amount of meat and very little milk. No bread, pasta, potato and certainly no cakes or sweets. I am very worried as she is now a size 8 heading again for a size 6.We do talk about it but both ending in tears.
I have been watching channel 4 programs regarding these issues and I am very upset that other less common eating disorders are practically ignored!!! I started binging and purging when I was a child. I failed badly at purging and soon my desire to 'perfect' my body came to an intense dislike and hatred toward it. I saw myself as extremely ugly and binged for many reasons to comfort and to punish. I began binging, no purging, because I thought I was so ugly and fat that there was no point in even trying to purge. Everytime I gained weight I would panic and turn to binging as a way of comfort whilst hating myself for it. It became a vicious circle. I was later diagnosed with binge eating disorder and it has taken me 10 years to get to a state of being a little bit 'over weight'. My psychiatrist hadn't even heard of it. I hoarde and hide food, can't eat a whole meal in front of others and privately binge. My teeth are discoloured because of acid reflux and when confronted with a large amount of food I feel very depressed. My relationship with my body image and food is horrible. The idea that eating disorders = purging non stop is just wrong! Eating disorder means eating disorder; issues with eating, be that too much, too little, restrictive etc, who underlying emotional issues. To ignore that fact makes those who secretly suffer with other eating disorders (binge eating disorder, compulsive eating disorder, other rarer and unusual pattern of eating disorders etc.) feel isolated. As a child had I gone on here I would not have found my problem because you're not mentioning it! Get this page sorted!
i'm 13 years old and only 6.7, my mum worries about my weight and says she doesnt like how skinny i am. you can see my bones and it's horrible, i always eat, but don't seem to put on any weight.
Im a healthy weight (BMI- 20) but I hate the way I look. I have started to starve myself and trying to loose weight. I know its wrong because I love food so much and I have become obsessed with how many calories I eat in a day. I need to stop worrying about my apperance but it is really hard. Nobody understands
Recently I have been getting headaches and getting dizzy quite often. I never eat lunch and never get hungry. My friend says that this is a syptom of anorexia, but I still feel as if I need to lose wieght. What should I do?
you need to start eating normally 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, you should go to see you GP about the headaches and dizziness and about the fact you feel you need to lose weight because if your over weight then you dont, but if you are over weight then not eating is not the way to go about losing weight. eating better and getting more exercise will help. i suffer with bulimia and i have for 3 years now before that i was anorexic, it ruined my life, i had no energy and i could not control my emotions because i relied on my eating disorder to do it for me and i was miserable. i became depressed and suicidal, please do not let that thought in your head telling you to lose weight gain control because it does not want to help you, it will only harm you if you listen and stop eating normally, its not something you can control, trust me, it will gain control of you and if you dont want to live a messed up life of fear of food, then dont let it take control, everytime you dont eat, it gains control. love yourself and tell yourself something you like/love about yourself everyday or everytime you think something bad about yourself. but what ever you do DO NOT LET SOME THING AS STUPID AND NOT IMPORTANT AS WHAT YOU WEIGHT TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE your beautiful just the way you are.
Hi, I really need help. I used to have anorxia at age 12, reached a healthy weight at age 13 and was pretty content (5ft 3" and 98lbs) I'm now 14 and a half and have developed binge eating disorder. I'm getting REALLY chubby (now 8 stone which I put on in TWO weeks) and unless I lose the weight and get down to 7 stone again I think I might kill myself, I don't want to live like this any more.
if you have been throwing up after you have binged then the majority of the weight you have gained is water. your body gets scared that you will become dehydrated again so it store alot of water in your body eg under skin so it is like you have gained weight but it is not fat its water. stop bingeing and throwing up then after a few weeks your body will trust you gain not to dehydrate your body and it will stop storing water and you will weight less because of it. it is not physically possible to gain a stone in two weeks not even 5 pounds. bingeing does can make you gain weight because between 30-50% of what you eating will be digested even if you throw up, but you body is designed to be able to cope with occasional binges and not put on weight. please get help for your eating disorders, go to your GP, tell your mum, anybody you can trust to help you but dont suffer in silence.
Hi im rebecca,14 and vegan i weigh around 8stone and im 5ft 3 i barely eat and i almost never eat in public i only eat when im starving and can go days without eating i feel satisfied when i feel hungry or when my belly rumbles when i do eat its food like,rice,pasta or noodles.ive lost a stone and a half in the past two months but still feel really fat my parents and teachers are worried about me having or developing an eating disorder but how can i if im much fatter/bigger/heavier than other girls :/ help?
hi i amm 13 and i am only 4.1 stone and think i am fat i dont care what i eat but i will not get dreesed in front of people becouse you can see quite a lot of my ribs and other bones
Well im 13 and im 4.6 stone I Only eat pasta noodles and chicken HELP!
hi. im Diana and i am 22. i am vegetarian and i eat just once or twice per day but i still get fat can you tell me please why???? i have 171cm and 73kg i use to have 64. i tried pills, i tried not to eat just salads but it doesn't help. can you please tell me what to do. thx
you have the same problem as me, i gain weight quickly because i spent along time not eating properly like you, i used to just eat maybe one meal a day, or just salads. it will take a max of 6 months to fix this problem, that sounds like a long time but your 22 so if your going to live until you like 80 then its not that long. you need to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, eating every 3-4hours, because your metabolism has slowed right down, if you live a normal life then eating anything less than 1200 calories a day will put your body into starvation mode and evreything you eat will be stored as fat and will stay that way until your body can trust you again not to starve it (about 6mounths sometimes sooner, if you dont slip up alot along the way) you might gain a little weight at first but this will eventually even out after time as your matabolism speeds up, nothing else will work nor will it work long term so please sort out your matabolism while your young because it just slows down the older you get. no time like the present.
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