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Early Childhood Eating Disorders
Mini-Articles
“Eating disorders” in your tots (3-6 year olds) are probably not eating disorders at all.
Effective Discipline Goes Hand in Hand with Healthy Eating
Fast and easy is hardly best when it comes to healthy eating for tots
Children who reach puberty early are at risk to develop eating disorders.
TV Dinners for Tots
Fat Fears Create Stress in Young Children
Stress Levels Rise in "Tweenies" (ages 6-12)
Early Childhood Eating Disorders
“Eating disorders” in your tots (3-6 year olds) are probably not eating disorders at all.
Picky eaters, compulsive overeaters, and food phobic kids are most likely not eating disordered in the sense that we have known these diseases. They are in most instances not victims of the anorexia and bulimia of later years that kill and maim, indicating poor self-esteem, lack of identity, ineffective problem solving, and body image disturbances. Young children are, however, at risk to develop these diseases if their conditions are not detected and handled early and skillfully.
Parents of young quirky eaters need to consult with their pediatrician to rule out organic or physical complications or causes. Next, they need to understand that the issues underling food related problems in young kids are not the same as those of teens and young adults, and as a result, need to be handled differently.
Quirkily eating youngsters are more likely to be the victims of negative role modeling…missing consistent, regular, balanced and home-cooked meals provided by and eaten with loving family members. These youngsters are apt to be genetically prone to anxiety and compulsive temperaments. When youthful disordered eating is handled responsibly and effectively by parents in the early years however, they can be nipped in the bud, preventing the onset of eating disorders as we know them.
Effective Discipline Goes Hand in Hand with Healthy Eating
The three keys to effective discipline, being firm, fair and consistent, happen to be the cornerstone of healthy eating and raising a child who is virtually immune to developing an eating disorder later in life.
As a psychotherapist of 32 years specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, I consistently see children afflicted with eating disorders at increasingly younger ages. It is no longer unusual to see kids as young as age five jogging in bedrooms or on playgrounds with the intention of losing weight, or otherwise demonstrating concern and fear about body image, body fat and food consumption. At the same time, the U.S. has never before seen as many overweight and obese children (11 million).
As a coach to parents, I suggest that it is never too early for them to teach kids healthy eating habits, attitudes, values and lifestyle rituals. It is my belief that if parents understand what truly healthy eating is, (not always an easy task), and if they can personally model a healthy eating and exercise lifestyle, consistently, firmly, without randomness or intention to control for the love of power, kids will grow up to be responsible and healthy eaters. Parents are obliged to expect and demand that children respect and honor their growing body's needs.
Fast and easy is hardly best when it comes to healthy eating for tots
I can't help but think that the new trend in tot foods (fast and easy) is all too indicative of pervasive eating dysfunction in our society today. It is little wonder that American kids are becoming afflicted with eating disorders and obesity at increasingly younger ages. I believe that parental attitudes and behaviors around food preparation and eating are at the root of a young child's developing eating health.
My sense is that if you trace “convenience eating” back to its source, you will most probably find hurried parents who spend too much time away from home and their children, and far too little time valuing, creating and nurturing family connections through cooking, and eating meals together. Only 50% of American families eat dinner together.
Fast foods tend to have more fats; they also tend to be eaten on the run, without family participation. When parents are not there to cook and provide for kids who are left to fend for themselves, it's easy for everyone to lose track of what healthy eating is and what healthy bodies are. It is no wonder that studies have shown that 80 percent of girls by grade 3 to 6 experience body image concerns, and that 80 percent of girls by age 13 have dieted in an effort to contain the natural bodily changes brought on by puberty.
Children who reach puberty early are at risk to develop eating disorders
With children reaching puberty at increasingly younger ages these days, it has become normal for girls who notice maturing bodily changes to begin feeling concern over what they see as "fat." (In one study, 80 percent of girls in grades 3 to 6 expressed unhappiness with their physical appearance.) This is a case of nature conflicting with nurture; just when girls are growing older and larger, society tells them that they should become smaller. Dieting and other forms of food restriction are the result; disordered eating and eating disorders follow, in too many cases.
This predicament puts girls from the ages of 9 to 12 at particular risk for the onset of eating disorders and dysfunction. It is critical for parents to be aware of this problem so that they can learn how to protect their child from these dangerous societal influences.
TV Dinners for Tots
I can't help but think that this new trend in tot foods (fast and easy) is all too indicative of pervasive eating dysfunction in our society today. It is little wonder that American kids are becoming afflicted with eating disorders and obesity at increasingly younger ages. I believe that parental attitudes and behaviors around food preparation and eating are at the root of a young child's developing eating health.
My sense is that if you trace convenience eating back to its source, you will most probably find hurried parents who spend too much time away from home and their children, and far too little time valuing, creating and nurturing family connections through cooking, and eating meals together.
Only 50% of American families eat dinner together. Fast foods for kids is a sad foreshadowing of the continuation of statistics such as 80% of girls by grade 3 to 6 experience body image concerns, or that 80% of girls by age 13 have dieted in an effort to contain the natural bodily changes brought on by puberty. When parents are not there to provide for their kids and when kids are left to fend for themselves, it's easy to lose track of what healthy eating and healthy bodies are about.
Who says holiday times are times to eat, drink and be merry? It's no secret that lots of kids today are highly concerned about body image issues, diet and weight management. By age 13, 80% of girls have been on diets. Food and eating, the very heart of holiday celebration, has become a chief source of teen anxiety.
Fat Fears Create Stress in Young Children
80 percent of 3rd - 6th graders are reported to be dissatisfied with their body, shape, or size. By the time girls are 9 years old, 30 - 40 percent of them have been on diets. The statistic jumps to 80 percent in girls who are ages 10 - 16. With girls reaching puberty at younger ages, it has become natural for youngsters under age 10 to grow increasingly concerned about bodily changes in a society that requires girls to grow thinner as they grow older. Most young girls do not realize that it is normal for pubescent girls to gain 20 percent of their weight in fat.
- Kids have lost sight of what healthy eating is. They do not know how to manage their weight healthfully. Childhood dieting is, in fact, the worst way to lose weight, and is a primary risk factor for the onset of eating disorders and obesity in adulthood.
- Many succumb to the pressure of peers to be skinny at all costs for the sake of acceptance.
- Skipping meals, fast foods, and eating disorders are on the rise, as families are no longer around to prepare food and eat it together with children.
- Obesity, too, is on the rise, and with it, ridicule and teasing by peers.
Stress Levels Rise in "Tweenies" (ages 6-12)
The effects of stress are never good and they come in various forms and at ever younger life stages. By age 5, kids are showing signs of succumbing to stress-related eating disorders and disturbances of all kinds. The average age of eating disorder onset used to be 13 - 17. Today it is 9 - 12. As youngsters reach puberty earlier and earlier, they are simply not equipped to understand what is happening to their changing body; at the same time, they are not immune to the unrelenting messages of the media, of peers, and of parents that they need to grow smaller even as they grow older. We are a weight-conscious, thin-is-in world.
I appeared this year on the Oprah Winfrey Show as an expert on childhood eating stress; this show featured a child who at age five ran compulsively around the school playground during recess to burn off calories. Another child who was featured on this show ran around her bedroom compulsively to keep her weight down. In one study, young people were reported to proclaim that they were more frightened of becoming fat than of losing their parents, of a nuclear holocaust or of getting cancer.
Weight concerns in young kids are both imposed by external forces, and triggered by internal ones (inherited tendencies, temperament, anxiety, depression, etc.) Food, eating and body image concerns are becoming a common pathway for the expression of mounting undifferentiated stress in a child's life, whether it be around weight management, self-control, or wider concerns about divorcing or ill parents. On a more optimistic note, food and eating also provide a means to assess and remedy a child's problems in the making before they become a negative life force.
www.empoweredkidZ.com is designed especially for kids, ages 7 - 17, who feel concerned or who have questions about body image, weight management and healthy eating. It is a hands on, interactive, kid-friendly site that provides a healthy alternative to the dangerous pro-anorexic web sites that currently proliferate on the Web.
About Abigail H. Natenshon
Abigail H. Natenshon, MA LCSW has been a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in the treatment of eating disordered individuals and their families for the past 28 years. She is co-founder and director of Eating Disorder Specialists of Illinois; A Clinic without Walls, and the author of When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Parents and Other Caregivers (Jossey Bass, San Francisco, October, 1999). Visit her web sites at www.empoweredparents.com and www.empoweredkidZ.com
CONTACT:
Abigail Natenshon, MA, LCSW
Telephone 847-432-1795
Fax: 847-266-9233
Highland Park, Illinois 60035
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