Animals & Nature1 min ago
Six-year-old anorexics
19 Answers
Children as young as six are being diagnosed with eating disorders. The findings have come from the first national study into eating disorders in children under 13. Having anorexia at such a young age can permanently stunt growth and weaken bones. What do you think? Is our obsession with body image spreading to our children? How can children as young as six feel they need to lose weight by starving themselves or making themselves sick?
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Yes I read that the TV & Media was to blame. A year ago TV & Media were to blame for obesity (McDonalds adverts etc). So what are the parents doing about ? Encouraging it obviously.....
Personally I think the research was flawed. If this is the right one I am thinking of, it was carried out by the Eating Disorders Association on children who just started school. I suspect the question put to the children was:
Q: Do you want to be fat?
A: No
ergo, image issues, dissatisfied with their bodies and desire to be thinner. Result: eating disorder/anorexia.
Personally I think the research was flawed. If this is the right one I am thinking of, it was carried out by the Eating Disorders Association on children who just started school. I suspect the question put to the children was:
Q: Do you want to be fat?
A: No
ergo, image issues, dissatisfied with their bodies and desire to be thinner. Result: eating disorder/anorexia.
I think that Octavius' answer is pretty spot on.
We live in a very image obsessed world, where if you dont look right then you dont really fit in. I think that it will spread to who ever people come into contact with.
The word Fat or Big is branned around like a dirty word and people are going to do all they can to stop themselves being bigger (so to speak.) Its bad that it has got to the extent that it affect children though. Surely the odd macdonalds and naughty food is good for us all?? Just not in huge ammounts.
We live in a very image obsessed world, where if you dont look right then you dont really fit in. I think that it will spread to who ever people come into contact with.
The word Fat or Big is branned around like a dirty word and people are going to do all they can to stop themselves being bigger (so to speak.) Its bad that it has got to the extent that it affect children though. Surely the odd macdonalds and naughty food is good for us all?? Just not in huge ammounts.
MEDIA !
kids are suposed to carry fat. its part of the growing process.
size 0 is a joke.. i saw a programme with Louise Nerding the other week. she has a near perfect body, but after loosing weight for the show she admitted to liking the new her !!!!!!
this is a woman that didnt want to loose any weight. she was always used to having her body air brushed in pictures !!!!!!
MEDIA is to blame for a lot of the rubbish that happens in the world !
give someone an idea, and the seed begins to grow !
kids are suposed to carry fat. its part of the growing process.
size 0 is a joke.. i saw a programme with Louise Nerding the other week. she has a near perfect body, but after loosing weight for the show she admitted to liking the new her !!!!!!
this is a woman that didnt want to loose any weight. she was always used to having her body air brushed in pictures !!!!!!
MEDIA is to blame for a lot of the rubbish that happens in the world !
give someone an idea, and the seed begins to grow !
And Stevie Wonder has ballooned to 20 stone!!! And that poor begger wouldn't even know if he was eating a carrot or a mars bar until its too late!!!
But on the question. I usually dismiss nost mental illness as faddish, but isn't anorexia all about control. That is you control what you eat and nobody else does? Body image is therefore secondary to the condition.
Well at 6 years old, the bloddy parents have a legal obligation to care for kids. If a 6 year old wont eat, bloddy force them!!. If I can force feed my friends German Sheppherd with worming pills, one must be able to force feed a 6 year old some decent grub!!!
But on the question. I usually dismiss nost mental illness as faddish, but isn't anorexia all about control. That is you control what you eat and nobody else does? Body image is therefore secondary to the condition.
Well at 6 years old, the bloddy parents have a legal obligation to care for kids. If a 6 year old wont eat, bloddy force them!!. If I can force feed my friends German Sheppherd with worming pills, one must be able to force feed a 6 year old some decent grub!!!
Joe-the-lion summed that up it is about control. You can control your weight to the extent that if you dont want to eat you dont. simple as. To plumit to a size 0 and enjoy the new you is terrible, you could see rib cages and all the coller bone.
Parents do have an obligation to look after their children and to promote a healthy eatting scheme. Like i said before att hat age does the odd macdonalds hurt?? surely puppy fat is part of the growing process! Where are they going to get the energy to run around in P.E and in the playground!
What gets me is that you see pictures in magazines of all the very tiny women and they say how awful they look, but as soon as they are putting the weight on they are slatted! where can you win??
Funkymophead, i think Jamie Oliver has had one to many of those beefs on his latest advert! LOL
Parents do have an obligation to look after their children and to promote a healthy eatting scheme. Like i said before att hat age does the odd macdonalds hurt?? surely puppy fat is part of the growing process! Where are they going to get the energy to run around in P.E and in the playground!
What gets me is that you see pictures in magazines of all the very tiny women and they say how awful they look, but as soon as they are putting the weight on they are slatted! where can you win??
Funkymophead, i think Jamie Oliver has had one to many of those beefs on his latest advert! LOL
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Fair enough Pa___ul, most kids aren't watching catwalk fashion shows and reading Nuts and FHM but they are playing with Bratz, Barbies and other skinny dolls.
For cying out loud even the My Little Ponies were slimmed down when they were relaunched a few years back.
This is to do with the media and parenting. Just the same as the obseity problem. We are brainwashed with so many adverts that advertise bad fattening foods and ads for teeny tiny size zero dolls and the result is pester power and the helplessness of many a parent who in this expensive consumer society is working day in day out and takes the easy option of agreeing to whatever the kid wants.
I grew up with no telly and the promise of a hefty slap if I didn't finish my dinner.
This is the real issue here: We need to take back the power from the children.
For cying out loud even the My Little Ponies were slimmed down when they were relaunched a few years back.
This is to do with the media and parenting. Just the same as the obseity problem. We are brainwashed with so many adverts that advertise bad fattening foods and ads for teeny tiny size zero dolls and the result is pester power and the helplessness of many a parent who in this expensive consumer society is working day in day out and takes the easy option of agreeing to whatever the kid wants.
I grew up with no telly and the promise of a hefty slap if I didn't finish my dinner.
This is the real issue here: We need to take back the power from the children.
My 63 yr old grand mother is anorexic, and has been since the age of 25. All her life she has been in and out of hospitals. Her body has been totally destroyed by this disease. She has only a third of her bowel left, and has the weakest bones. She is literally crumbling.
I have sat and talked to her about the how's and why's, and she tells me that after she gave birth to my mum, about a yr or 2 after, her father told her that she looked fat. Pure and simple. That one comment frm someone who she was supposed to trust, ruined her life. She tells me that even back when she was younger, she felt there was a great pressure from society to look a certain way. So this problem has always been around.
I just think that it's the parents who need to make sure their children are protected from the evil side of society. Monitor what they watch on tv and read/see in magazines. Children are growing up far too quickly and this needs to stop. I always tell my 4 yr old son that everybody's different. I doesn't matter what shape or size you are, as long as you are healthy!
I have sat and talked to her about the how's and why's, and she tells me that after she gave birth to my mum, about a yr or 2 after, her father told her that she looked fat. Pure and simple. That one comment frm someone who she was supposed to trust, ruined her life. She tells me that even back when she was younger, she felt there was a great pressure from society to look a certain way. So this problem has always been around.
I just think that it's the parents who need to make sure their children are protected from the evil side of society. Monitor what they watch on tv and read/see in magazines. Children are growing up far too quickly and this needs to stop. I always tell my 4 yr old son that everybody's different. I doesn't matter what shape or size you are, as long as you are healthy!
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Well we have to blame something/someone don�t we.
A similar thing exists with guns and knives/swords. In my childhood I had a toy plastic gun and plastic sword and used to dress up as a cowboy or a pirate and mosey or swashbuckler with my sisters and friends on sunny afternoons in the garden or over the park.
I have no idea what my deranged irresponsible parents were thinking, but thankfully I grew up not to dress up (not outside the bedroom at least) nor carry such things in my adult life. But no doubt if I ever feel emotionally battered or scarred, I can blame the milky bar kid.
Incidentally, are children getting thinner these days because Wagon Wheels are smaller now than I remember?
A similar thing exists with guns and knives/swords. In my childhood I had a toy plastic gun and plastic sword and used to dress up as a cowboy or a pirate and mosey or swashbuckler with my sisters and friends on sunny afternoons in the garden or over the park.
I have no idea what my deranged irresponsible parents were thinking, but thankfully I grew up not to dress up (not outside the bedroom at least) nor carry such things in my adult life. But no doubt if I ever feel emotionally battered or scarred, I can blame the milky bar kid.
Incidentally, are children getting thinner these days because Wagon Wheels are smaller now than I remember?
I cannot see that anyone could quickly illicit the complex symptoms of anorexia Nervosa from a 6 yearold. I haven't read it, but it sounds like Octavius could be right about the standard of the questions and the assumptions made.It is about control and power, and can start from one comment in people with underlying issues around these, however once in the semi starvation state, this has it's own symptoms unrelated to Anorexia Nervosa. This experiment by Ancel Keys in the war is a classic piece of research, and is very interesting. http://www.possibility.com/epowiki/Wiki.jsp?pa ge=EffectsOfSemiStarvation
They are effected massively through media they all want to look like models and pop stars.
I last time I babysat my 10 yr old niece we were sitting eating popcorn while watching a film at home and she said sorry I cannot eat anymore because 'i shouldn't' it wasn't that her parents would'nt allow her, it was her thinking she would get fat. But also the way she said it she was making it clear to me what she meant - didn't hide it, why would she do that - was she crying out for help or what? I think it's terrible for a girl to be like that at 10.
I last time I babysat my 10 yr old niece we were sitting eating popcorn while watching a film at home and she said sorry I cannot eat anymore because 'i shouldn't' it wasn't that her parents would'nt allow her, it was her thinking she would get fat. But also the way she said it she was making it clear to me what she meant - didn't hide it, why would she do that - was she crying out for help or what? I think it's terrible for a girl to be like that at 10.
So should we all stop telling children to not eat so many sweets because it might rot their teeth and spoil their tea for fear of them getting anorexia? Or should we let them eat what they like and become obese with metallic teeth?
Have the common sense principles that the generation before (i.e. my parents) had for parenting left the planet in recent times?
Have the common sense principles that the generation before (i.e. my parents) had for parenting left the planet in recent times?
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