1. Are you the parent of a normal, healthfully eating child who is beginning to feel worried about becoming fat, or is becoming preoccupied with weight control?
   
   Your child may be developing body image concerns that may be a risk factor for the onset of an eating disorder.
   
   
2. In your effort to become more fit and healthy, do you consistently find yourself losing and regaining weight over time, through much effort, hardship, and expense?
   
   Yo-yo dieting is destructive to the body and sets a bad example for children.
   
   
3. Do your own preoccupations with food and eating leave you unable to concentrate at your job or on your studies?
   
   Eating disorders and body image problems in adult men and women can interfere in one's quality of role and life function, relationships, parenting, and marriage.
   
   
4. Does any member of your family exhibit signs of reluctance to eat in front of you?
   
   Eating disorders are family diseases, showing up in bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens and dining rooms.
   
   
5. Have family dinners ceased to be a regular event in your house? Do you regularly purchase lite or fat-free foods, consult nutritional labels before purchasing a food product, and skip meals?
   
   Parents are their child's most important life teachers and role models. When parents exhibit an unhealthy or imbalanced relationship with food, they may be demonstrating misconceptions and fears that are likely to be transferred to their children.
   
   
6. Are you afraid that your teenager is beyond the age of listening to adults, especially to their parents? Do you think it is normal for kids to be on a diet, that dieting is the best and only way to lose weight?
   
   When parents subscribe to myths about children's needs, nutrition, eating disorders and their treatment, or the like, this may be inspiring the onset of eating disorders.
   
   
7. Do you have difficulty recognizing, defining, and resolving emotional problems? At times, would you prefer to simply "look the other way"? Do you feel out of control of control of your life?
   
   These are emotional responses and attitudes that may facilitate the onset of eating disorders in your children.
   
   
8. Do you find yourself overeating compulsively for reasons other than satiating hunger? Do you eat or purge food out of habit, for comfort, or to numb yourself from emotional pain?
   
   These may become symptoms of obesity, compulsive overeating, binge eating disorder, or bulimia.
   
   
9. Do you find that if you are unable to work out regularly, you feel anxious and unable to function effectively that day?
   
   This may be symptomatic of an activity disorder or an eating disorder.
   
   
10. Do you find yourself craving carbohydrates and refined sugars -- and once you eat them, you feel as though you can never get enough?
    
    You may be struggling with a "sugar addiction," which may the precursor of obesity or other eating dysfunctions.
    
    
11. Do you feel guilty when you eat fatty foods?
    
    This may be the result of a body image disturbance or of eating disordered attitudes and distortions.
    
    
12. Do you spend a lot of time in front of the television on a daily basis? Is the television running during meals? Do your children watch television instead of playing, studying, or dialoguing it?
    
    A sedentary and imbalanced lifestyle can interfere with human interaction and may contribute to the onset of eating disorders or obesity.
    
    
13. Do you have healthy children who eat normally, but you find yourself worrying that one day they will associate with the wrong peers and become eating disordered overnight?
    
    Eating disorders evolve over time and give clear warning for prevention if parents know what to look for. Frequently parents feel vulnerable and victimized by a food-phobic society.
    
    
14. Do you know a person with an eating disorder whose treatment and recovery at times seem to be going nowhere?
    
    Parents and caregivers need to find expert professional help who understand the unique requirements and protocols of eating disorder treatment.
    
    
15. Are there addictions or eating disorders in your family?
    
    Susceptibility to eating disorders is passed through the genes, as well as learned through example and modeling.
    

In summary:

There is often a thin line between what is normal and what is pathological when it comes to eating behaviors in children and adults. Dysfunctional eating and emotional patterns may indicate disease, pre-disease, or simple behavioral quirkiness.

Whatever these patterns describe -- and particularly when they occur in clusters -- they bespeak emotional imbalances, distortions in thinking, or developmental tasks not yet achieved that are capable of derailing an individual's maturation into adulthood. These behaviors need to be addressed.


Psychotherapist Abigail H. Natenshon has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders with individuals, families, and groups for the past 28 years. She is the author of "When Your Child Has An Eating Disorder, A Step-by-Step Workbook For Parents And Other Caregivers," Jossey-Bass, 1999. Based on hundreds of successful outcomes, this book shepherds concerned parents step-by-step through the processes of eating disorder recognition, confronting the child, finding the most effective treatment for patient and family, and evaluating and insuring a timely recovery. Her work can be reviewed further at www.empoweredparents.com.