By Leslie Davis
If you notice your children skipping meals or overeating to the point of excess and disappearing immediately, you may want to be on the lookout for symptoms of an eating disorder.
Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia don’t just happen to adults. In fact, according to an Oct. 8 article in the journal Psychiatric Times, anorexia develops in early adolescence (between the ages of 12 and 15) and bulimia often develops between the ages of 15 and 17.
Unless you address these disorders when you first suspect them, there is a good chance that your children will struggle with their eating disorder for years - if not for the rest of their lives.
Signs of Anorexia
Anorexia is typically characterized by extreme weight loss as a result of an overly restrictive diet and a compulsion to exercise. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry describes the personality of an anorexic as a struggle between high expectations and low self-image:
A teenager with anorexia nervosa is typically a perfectionist and a high achiever in school. At the same time, she suffers from low self-esteem, irrationally believing she is fat regardless of how thin she becomes.
Desperately needing a feeling of mastery over her life, the teenager with anorexia nervosa experiences a sense of control only when she says “no” to the normal food demands of her body. In a relentless pursuit to be thin, the girl starves herself. This often reaches the point of serious damage to the body, and in a small number of cases may lead to death.
As indicated by the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in an Oct. 5 article in The Daily Times, symptoms of anorexia that you should watch out for include the following:
- Significant weight loss
- Continual dieting (even though the child is already thin)
- Feelings of fatness by the child even after weight loss
- Fear of weight gain
- Lack of menstrual periods
- Preoccupation with food, calories, nutrition and/or cooking
- A preference to eat in isolation
- Compulsive exercise
- Insomnia
- Brittle hair or nails
- Social withdrawal
Signs of Bulimia
Bulimics will deprive themselves of food and then go on eating binges, followed by purging through vomiting, use of laxatives or excessive exercise. Here’s how the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry describes the personality of a bulimic:
The symptoms of bulimia are usually different from those of anorexia nervosa. The patient binges on huge quantities of high-caloric food and/or purges her body of dreaded calories by self-induced vomiting and often by using laxatives. These binges may alternate with severe diets, resulting in dramatic weight fluctuations.
Teenagers may try to hide the signs of throwing up by running water while spending long periods of time in the bathroom. The purging of bulimia presents a serious threat to the patient’s physical health, including dehydration, hormonal imbalance, the depletion of important minerals and damage to vital organs.
In the Oct. 5 Daily Times article, the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital advised being on the lookout for the following bulimia symptoms:
- Uncontrollable eating (binge eating)
- Purging by self-induced vomiting
- Vigorous exercise
- Abuse of laxatives or diuretics (water pills) to lose weight
- Frequent use of the bathroom after meals
- Reddened fingers (from inducing vomiting)
- Swollen cheeks or glands (from induced vomiting)
- Preoccupation with body weight
- Depression or mood swings
- Irregular menstrual periods
- Dental problems, such as tooth decay caused by induced vomiting
- Heartburn and/or bloating
Treating Eating Disorders
Your children may be skilled in hiding their eating disorders from you, so if you are suspicious, be sure to look for the warning signs. Remember that although eating disorders are more common in females, anorexia and bulimia also affect males.
Accessing the appropriate treatment for your children’s eating disorder is important, no matter what age they are. If you suspect or know that your children have an eating disorder, seek professional help through a therapist or residential treatment center that specializes in eating disorders. The eating disorder may be masking a problem such as substance abuse, depression or anxiety that can be treated at the same time.
Family therapy has also proven to be effective in treating childhood eating disorders. Family therapy not only addresses the child’s eating disorder, but helps parents manage the symptoms of the eating disorder. According to the study in the Psychiatric Times, between 60 percent and 80 percent of adolescents treated with family therapy no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for anorexia. Between 40 percent and 80 percent reach a normal weight for their age and have no evidence of an eating disorder problem.
Medications can be used to treat eating disorders in children, but researchers recommend only using them when children have a co-occurring disorder (such as anxiety or depression) or are not responsive to therapy.