Hospitalization surged 119 percent among children under 12 between 1999 and 2006, report finds
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comEating disorders rising fast among young kids
Seeded on Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:23 AM EST (msnbc.com)
- msnbc.com sites & shows:
- TODAY
- Rock Center
- Nightly News
- Meet the Press
- Dateline
- Morning Joe
- Hardball
- Ed
- Maddow
- Last Word
- msnbc tv
Leave a Comment:
This is beyond sad. I blame our country's obsession with food, with pushing kids to "clean that plate", and to stay uber thin at all costs.
It is made worse because recognition that obesity also represents an eating disorder is not happening.
When will we learn you can't have it both ways?
Parents need to stop relying on fast food to provide a nutritional meal for their kids and then being surprised wen the kids get fat.
Fruit needs to be less expensive than chips etc, juices cheaper than sodas, and breads cheaper than Twinkies.
Maybe I didn't read the article properly... but it didn't really single out over eating. It could also include under eating, malnutrition from lack of variety, etc. Actually, I found this article quite uninformative. It'd be nice to know some of what the eating disorders are, for a start.
I daresay, people would sooner be hospitalized for under eating than over eating.
better that they are too skinny, than too fat!
To skinny isn't good either. I know from personal experience. My daughter is only 12 and her BMI is too low; however she loves the attention (although she won't admit it). Her pediatrician told her at her last physical she HAD to gain weight (yes, I know, we'd all love that problem). She's always been thin but this is TOO thin! We are struggling. I wish the magazines and TV would show more of a healthy image!
Very poorly written article - Lindsay Tanner is clearly a newly minted grad - or was really slacking when this one was written. But - from what little I can glean without actually digging up the study - it appears this is about anorexia/bulimia disorders in children - UNDER 12 (!?!) It does not mention sex, but without a doubt these are little girls. Not too many little boys are worried about how big thier butts look. I figure this is about image disordered eating because of the last sentence in the article - "doctors can help prevent eating disorders by stressing proper nutrition and exercise to avoid an unhealthy focus on weight and dieting." The key words are unhealthy focus on weight and dieting, a typical trait of anorectic thought processes and not of overeaters and binge eaters who dont have an unhealthy focus on weight and dieting. They have no focus at all on those!
No, this is about under-12 children worrying about being too fat! So sad - it is just the other end of the spectrum of disordered eating with overeating/obesity at one end and anorexia/image issues at the other end.
Food and eating are one of those very basic primal needs all of us have. On the first day of our lives on this earth we all cried of hunger and mother fed us, thus comforting us. Now because our social fabric is so torn and tattered under every imaginable stress the animal called human was not meant to endure for lenghty periods of time - have become ill. Mental illness. Our children are running to food to comfort an emotional discomfort. They cant receive the comfort they truly need - so they go to the thing they instinctively know brings comfort. And that isnt limited to childhood. Obesity epidemic in the USA is the synergistic effect of the breakdown of the social unit, increased stressors, abundance of food, and highly sophisticated pyschological marketing strategies from corporations.
We have become a nation of whatever increases the bottom line is ok. And our culture and families, our psyches and those of our children are but mere collateral damage in that aim.
I see no hope until the constant images of fashion-model cartoon characters and princess costumes, and heaping praise on young girls for being so pretty and perfect rather than on thier abilities and character - stop. Little girls need to be valued for more than thier cuteness. When they grow up, and that constant praise isnt forthcoming, the insecurity that is already present for any young girl increases immensely.
This is not a problem of teaching proper nutrition and exercise. Most anorectics could be nutritionists - because they have obsessively studied nutrition and bodily function - so they can learn to control it. This is a problem of budding mental illness caused by a dysfunctional culture. This is the fault of society. It is a form of depression, of not valuing the proper things.
It is yet another symptom of a hedonistic, corrupt, and failing culture.
Re your comment that overeaters do not focus on weight and dieting, I must say that you are mistaken. People who are overweight (and who have binge eating disorder, or compulsive overeating) think about dieting, weight and body image CONSTANTLY. It only LOOKS like they don't care about these things.
I am a member of OA (Overeaters Anonymous) and I am a compulsive OVER eater. Anorexics, bulemics, and exercise bulemics also come to OA, and we find that there are amazing similarities in all of these disorders. All of these disorders share in common an unhealthy preoccupation with food, weight and body image. All have a devastating affect on quality of life. Most overeaters can tell you about a time when they experienced the reverse side of the coin and experienced anorexic thinking and behavior. Neither side of this coin is well.
I personally believe that more people die of compulsive overeating than ANY other disease....it just says heart attack, diabetes, or cancer as their cause of death. One difference between COEs and anorexics is that COE's often experience judgement from others....it is just more socially acceptable to be too thin than too fat.
I'm glad that anorexics can get the help they need in eating disorder clinics and hospitals and that insurance will often pay for that. Unfortunately, if we provided that same level of treatment for COE's insurance companies would go broke.
It would appear that everyone involved with treating eating disordare recognizes this except for the insurance companies. Many companies have the patient booted out of care as soon as they are stabilized, not recognizing the need for serious counseling and work on examining the underlying causes. The child will relapse if not adequately treated post stabilization. If you have a child who you suspect may be having difficulties, check with your carrier and see if they are up to the task. The whole family must be part of the solution and this requires full coverage for counseling and education. Treatment is not cheap and involves a number of professional disciplines. Medical doctors are just the start of the regime for children who are seriously afflicted. The process can take months or years.
What kind of eating disorders? It would have been nice to know - are we talking anorexia, bulemia, or binge-eating? Does this include any gastric bypass surgeries for morbidly obese teens? I just wish there was more info on this.
the article states that their is an unhealthy focus on weight and dieting, implying that its along the lines of anorexia and similar conditions
Need more info on numbers. For example, does 119% increase mean from two kids to five kids? Or from two thousand kids to five thousand kids. It really does matter!
FEED your children, and the hell with this crap, most of these doctors know nothing about children. how do doctors know anything when they never see most children, 99 percent of the time there in there office all day long play golf and then warn parents on how to feed your child.who are they kidding.
Just don't feed your children highly processed cheap food, and pretty sure doctors know a bit more about nutrition than the average American citizen.
How can anybody blame anybody for having an eating disorder when all we see on tv is shows about cooking and man vs food. What a bunch of hippocrats we all are. Show this eat this and do this, but don't do what I do or say about food?
Or "America's Next Top Model" where the tell size 2 models they are too fat?!?
This is ridiculously non-specific. What type of eating disorders are we speaking of? Is it really eating habits or are we talking about allergies?
How big was the sample or samples.
If this is about food allergies, I'd suggest it is because of the over processing of commercially available food and meddling with the genetics of foods. I think is more likely the cause than it being changes in children. Science is moving much faster that evolution.
I have a 13 yrold niece who was informed after her monthly weight at the nurses office at her middle scholl that she was "OBESE".......
First, my niece is athletic playing year round sports.... second, why would a school nurse say to the child that she is "OBESE"...maybe that should be discussed with the parent or guardian...Third, if you don't want eating disorders to rise let doctors be the ones giving medical advise.....she just had a physical and the doctor commented on her weight being in line with her body structure and physical activity...she she was so "OBESE" why is she able to play soccer, baseball, basketball....Lastly, if I were a 13 yrold girl and someone is telling me I am "OBESE" and am already insecure what do you think she is going to do.binge or purge you pick.....American families need to be speaking up for themselves before it is too late...what next...arrest the parents for abuse.....
maybe you need a refresher course on obesity and its' consequences. If the nurse was basing her info on the BMI then your neice IS obese.
The BMI cannot be the only scale used to determining obesity. If a person does not fit into the middle of the chart-ie too short or too tall then the standard is screwed up...My hubby is 6'6" according to the standard BMI chart he is obese at 210 lbs.
no, he is overweight, there is a big difference. For him to be obese he would need to be over 235.
The BMI does not take into account the size of a persons bone structure. A person that is 5 feet 5 inches, has a petite bone structure and weighs 200 pounds is a lot different than someone who is 6 feet tall, has the bone structure of a football player and weighs 200 pounds. There is simply more bone there, which is going to make that person weigh more without taking fat content into consideration.
As I said a BMI chart cannot be the only measure of fitness. Someone who is active can be overwieght and be perfectly healthy. On the other side a person can be routinely under weight and have a dibilitating-career ending stroke at 52.
BMI charts become highly inaccurate as your level of fitness increases. Many athletes are considered overweight or obese by the BMI charts.
The news article should be saying - Parents do not have the mental skills and are defunctional in their ability to cope with feeding children under the age of 12.
I had an eating disorder throughout my teens and my parents enabled my behavior. And since I was eating "a little", it was good enough for them and they never got me help. The pressure to be thin in our society, especially if a little girl sees her mom starving or overexercising and dieting, will make the child selfconscious as well. The root of the problem lies with how the parents are acting to begin with, with regards to food.
Obesity is a MUCH BIGGER health concern than under eating.
stspecialk - they are BOTH problems and both need dealt with. Kids die from BOTH. Younger kids are more likely to die from under-eating (anorexia, bulimia, etc) than overeating. Overeating is damaging their future.
Please understand that under eating is an issue - a VERY serious one.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that all the kids want to be thin, I mean reallly THIN, as in all the girls on the magazine covers that they see when they are with their mothers when they go through the check-out line at the grocery store. It's all over the television daily....all their role models are stick thin. Size 2 is too big these days, you've got to be a size 0 (I don't know what's smaller) Even young boys are getting this message. They figure things out really young whether we want them to or not. You ask any little girl and she'll tell you "I'm too fat" even though common sense says she's not. Her perception is that she is too fat.
If mommy is on a diet all the time, she gets the message that way too. The same at school. Also, plastic surgery, gastric bypass and every other thing for weight loss is on TV constantly...almost every commercial.
There was a lot of talk about getting rid of these messages but I don't think we've even gotten a start.
I don't know whether it's the journalist or the editor, but this is a pretty sorry piece of journalism. Nowhere does it mention which eating disorder they're talking about, or all of them. Nowhere do they provide other important information, such as breaking this down into age and gender. They've basically told us nothing.
better to be too thin than too fat.
stspecial....I do believe we have a fat phobe in our midst!!!
I think you need help.
I absolutely am a fatphobe. . . it is the largest health issue facing our nation.
spec...bet you can care less if someone eats healthy or not! you only care if they look overweight.....don't hide your nastiness with fake concern.
Being too thin is just as bad as being too fat. Girls that are too thin have more problems with their menstrual cycle than over weight girls do. Being too thin can also affect a females fertility and a cancer patients ability to fight infection.
stspecialk you need to take a step down off your high horse and do a little research.
To stspecialk: Many children have DIED from eating too little. Sounds as though you desperately need help yourself, rather than posting more lies and misinformation on a Newsvine thread....
Too thin children are malnourished and develop brain malnourishment which leads to neurological, emotional and psychological impairments in developing brains which cah increase the incidence of OCD, depression, ADD and so on... NEITHER is "healthier".
True, neither is 'healthier' but overeating is a much larger health concern in the US than undereating disorders.
Again, I would disagree that either is better or worse. Unbeknownst to the general public but well known with parents who are dealing with autism, most of the children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum disorders have malnutritions issues and most are quite thin. Thin is not indicative of wellness. People walk around "thin" with high cholesterol. People need to educate themselves about the Krebs cycle and what the word nutrition really means. It means the body's ability to ABSORB the nutrients it takes in. ASD people often suffer poor nutrition because of malabsorption issues due to poor body ecology (caused by too much sugar and a pH acidic diet), leaky gut and toxin overload issues that are indicative to genetic impairments.
I submit that there are epidemic genetic impairments occurring with every generation that is marinating in toxins in body care products, smoking, the air, water, soil and air pollution, GM foods, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides that are use in a cavalier fashion in our food chain. And the animals products we eat are riddled with fat, which is where toxins are stored that all life forms ingest or are exposed to. So our Dairy obsessed culture is producing a toxin overload, and our children's bodies cannot handle clearing it. Add to that... their DNA codes are gettingmessed up with the toxin overload and are now producing kids with impairments that screw up their neurological functioning, cognitive development, and the ability to detox. Toxin overload is the largest issue to screw up a child's ability to function neurologically and that effects one's motor development, impulse control, emotional stability, and ramps up ADDICTIONS. neurochemistry in obese children will show impoverished brain and neurological development at the same level as a child with anorexia. They are opposite sides of the same coin. I'm not saying that stress and the collective conscious (and unconscious) is not a factor, because it is... What I am saying is that there is a deeper less understood physiological aspect to obesity and anorexia issues. Neurosis expresses itself in different ways, and a child that does not feel safe and valued will express an issues through compliance of defiance to the expectations of family as a means to be seen, heard, acknowledged and valued.
In addition to this even a "neuro-typical" CHILD is still developing his or her brain before the age of 18, which means that malnutrition is detrimental to developmental issues associated with focus, cognition, ADD, OCD, impulse control, depression and an altered neurochemical balance.
Since the woman entered the workplace the most affected have been children. Women have no time to cook healthy anymore. Parents are just too busy and consequently fast food have invaded homes.
The fact women work should not be an excuse but unfortunately everyone is not educated how to eat healthy anymore. Ultimately the primary care giver is responsible to educate their children and encourage them to eat healthy. There is a lot information online that would educate parents how to help their children eat healthier. It is a lot of work but don't you think does worth it?
We are what we learn and there are now many generations of us who did not grow up with a working environment about cooking, nutrition and self care that does not include processed food. Processed food companies have done an extra ordinary number on the psyche of the American people in trying convince them that cooking is "So hard" and "time cuonsuming". Bull crap... I have cooked every day of my son's life. I'm 43 and my son has never had a hot lunch, rarely has fast food, and I make a simple dinner of meat, a starch and a vegetable every night. It's NOT rocket science, and yet we're LAZY, NUMB, DISASSOCIATED or APATHETIC in this country MORE than we LACK TIME. We don't LACK time. We lack initiative! We LACK PRIORITIES! We lack a regard for our life. We lack reverence for taking care of our bodies, minds and spirits! And, as a result, self loathing is at an all time high in our country. You can call it addiction, anorexia, OCD, depression or obesity... IT IS ALL THE SAME DAMED THING! It ALL STEMS FROM THE SAME DYSFUNCTION... a sense of overwhelm and separation from others. It stems from a disconnect, a core value system that is SELF PRESERVATION oriented not SELF DESTRUCTION. There is nothing in our culture that promotes reverence for self, and least of all that is taught in our own family structures which have been experiencing epidemic levels of divorce, single parenting and so on for the last 35 years.
..The obesity problem began in the mid seventies when most food processers and soft drink manufacturers switched from sugar to high fructose corn syrup which blocks a brain chemical that tells you when you have consumed enough, high fructose corn syrup also causes the liver to produce more blood fat......look on the lable of almost every food product you buy other than fresh vegies, fruit and meat and you will find high fructose corn syrup......And why not, the more people consume, the more money food processers make, it is just like the drug industry which has addicted 45% of all Americans...................fourty years ago, who would have ever visualized one consuming a 64 oz. (half gallon) soft drink two or three times per day, in my time a 16 oz. soda was considered super size........Speak up, the lust for profit is killing Americans by the millions each year, on the other hand, it may be a planned method for population control in a world that is groming by 70 million per year
I am slightly appalled by the fact that some people think that obesity is a bigger problem, or that it is better to be skinny instead of fat. My sister has battled with anorexia nervosa for more than half of her life and she is only 17. The biggest issue is the image pulled from what is seen on the screen or the magazine isle and furthermore what parents are feeding their kids. If a healthy diet is encouraged as well with a healthy mind. Anorexia is much more prominent and prevalent than obesity, read the facts, and please if your kid shows the psychological symptoms of anorexia, help them early, it will save a world of hurt and maybe even a life.
you have to take into account the #'s. thousands of people deal with undereating disorders, while hundreds of thousands of people deal with overeating disorders that end up having a much greater cost on society as a whole.
special...have you taken into account the millions of phobes like yourself that claim to eat right, blah blah blah and think they will live to a ripe old age....only to have dementia and Alzheimer's and their care will depend on medicare/taxpayers for years and years and years.......just sayin'.
I can guarantee that obesity is a bigger problem, when the studies turn around and 1/3 of the American population is considered 'Too Thin' then you'd be right. But for now obesity is a huge threat to our society.
Kids really don't know what to do these days. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They are blasted for being too heavy and yet when they do try to watch what they eat they are labeled with an eating disorder.
Exactly correct Yuengling. We need to know the number of hospitalization to determine the scope to this problem...Presumably the number is large, otherwise why waste time and space with this article.
I took this article to be about anorexia, bulemia etc...In any case, I wish "they" would make up their damn minds. First it was, OMG kids are sooo fat, now its OMG kids are too skinny. PLEASE, make up your minds.
With all of the mean fatphobes in this country, its easy to understand why so many kids are starving themselves.
It's called moderation . . . something this country has issues with in ALL areas!!!
both these comments the best on the board yet; i would say more if could, but lying down with health issues from anorexia and bulimia going on eighteen years now; more obesity runs in my family but none have come close to death like i have; eating disorders are no longer just about genes though, numbers are going up because of society mostly. Eating disorders do include both ends if related to emotions, comfort or dealing with things. Anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating (a lot of obese/overweight ppl do have this disorder too). For the ones like you that know what you are truly talking about, please keep being the voice to so many like myself not heard.
janar, I agree completely that obesity(not by BMI) but true obesity is definitely an eating disorder. It's not what goes/not goes in your mouth, its what goes on in your brain.
people are soooo mean when it comes to weight issues..but i always wonder what they are hiding because there is a reason they are so hateful.
tks tons for hearing my heart; I'm just now getting back to follow up on comments as been sick (nothing new with this). ** For anyone wanting more details on this particular article, issue, I found out through higher sources, this same issue (subject matter) was all over the web same day this was put out; Some news sites/stations don't have them as well written as others, depending on subject matter with that too. The ones I'm aware of: cnn.com, something-fishy.net under news, abcnews.com (not sure exact domain on that), and variations of other sites about recent eating disorder information. I know some had wanted to know more information on the issue as a whole as well as more details on this subject matter with this article. These should be of more help** :) Tc
You all have me laughing...Thank you....Too bad the story didn't give any of us a clue about what kind of eating disorder....
I would also submit that despite the "sadness" people are expressing here about the young age of these eating disorders, it is actually a GREAT BLESSING to be diagnosed at such a young age. Children who are caught in this cycle at an age less than 10, even more the age of 7, are far more easily "reprogrammed" into healthier behavior patterns than a child of 16, 17 or 18, which is when a child is more likely to be really in the throws of an eating disorder. Eating disordered start small and grow. There is a snowball. If we catch them when neurologically their cognitive development is still very pliable, ALL THE BETTER. A child older will not be so easily brought back into balance.
So...There IS an up side to this. They may be younger, but younger is easier to "redirect."
In our practice we have noticed an up tick in the sheer number of eating disorders that fall into the unusual category. It used to be bulimia and anorexia, now its things like BDD Body Dysmorphic Disorder. The eating disorders Anorexia and bulimia are seen as very similar while many of us feel that anorexia is very different and more like BDD in form and function. Those with BDD and severe anorexia seem to have a type of obsessive thought disorder and may respond better to second generation antipsychotics than to SSRI's. My two cents.
Pretty "thin" article--no pun intended. Light on details, but just enough info to make parents a little more anxious than they are already
When you are dealing with it . . . well, it's something to be anxious about.
Eating disorders are not related to a discussion of kids being "too fat" or "too skinny." They are a form of mental illness that just happens to involve food.