Eating Disorders and Your Tween: What Every Mom Should Know

 At first, she would only eat green beans if they were steamed. Then, she would only eat a certain brand of bean. Now, she’ll only eat foods that are green, nibbling them slowly, one pea at a time, leaving you worried because she’s leaving more than half her food on her plate.

Could your tween—just 8 to 12 years old—be developing an eating disorder?

“Ritualistic behaviors like these are definitely a cause for concern,” says David Rosen, MD, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan and the author of a manual on eating disorders for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
 

Among kids under 12, hospitalizations for anorexia (self-starvation); bulimia (bingeing and purging), and binge eating have more than doubled in the past decade, reports the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. And more than 60 percent of elementary and middle school teachers say eating disorders are a problem at their schools, reports the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (www.anad.org).

Younger kids can manifest eating disorders by

• insisting that they dine alone or without others watching;
• developing unexplained headaches or stomachaches at mealtimes;
• leaving the table mid-meal without returning;
• looking in the mirror and weighing themselves repeatedly;
• obsessively counting calories or studying nutrition labels;
• asking others, “Do I look fat?”;
• cooking often for others, but never for themselves; and
• losing weight (which kids under 12 shouldn’t do, instead maintaining the same weight and growing taller if they happen to be overweight).

Unlike most teens with eating disorders, younger sufferers tend to

• have underlying emotional problems such as depression or anxiety;
• be responding to stresses such as a recent move, divorce, or death in the family;
• exercise compulsively;
• be open about their disordered eating instead of hiding it; and
• be less likely to use vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives.

“Another key difference is that younger children with eating disorders are more likely to be male,” says Rosen. “Among 16-year-olds, there may be ten girls for every affected boy. At age 12, the ratio may be five to one. And at age nine, it may be roughly equal.”

In people of any age or gender, anorexia can cause malnutrition, muscle atrophy, and bone erosion; bulimia can trigger heart problems, tooth decay, and irregular bowel movements; and binge eating can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

“These problems are especially dangerous in younger kids because they have less body fat, get sicker faster, are still developing, and can sustain permanent damage,” says Rollyn M. Ornstein, MD, of the Eating Disorders Program at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. “If you suspect your child has an eating disorder, immediately take him or her to your family doctor or pediatrician, who may offer referral to a psychiatrist, nutritionist, or eating-disorders specialist."