This week, many of us will embark on a post-Christmas diet, but while there is nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy, health specialists are now questioning whether society it putting too much pressure on children to be thin.
Nearly 200 children aged between five and nine have been hospitalised and treated for eating disorders in recent years.
“We’re seeing an epidemic of children with eating disorders and we’re seeing them at a younger and younger age,” says Dr Dee Dawson, eating disorder specialist.
In Tonight’s programme, Fiona Foster meets girls as young as seven who are already very aware of their body shape. They feel that being heavy would be bad and would lead to teasing.
In an exclusive Tonight survey, we questioned one thousand five hundred seven to 18 year olds about their attitude to weight loss and body image. More than 60 per cent told us they worry about their weight. Over a third admitted to skipping a meal in order to lose weight. One in ten said they had been on at least five diets in the last 12 months.
Anorexia is a complex mental illness and no one is sure what causes it, but children affected by it are often perfectionists who lack self-confidence, have low self-esteem or face traumas in their lives. Experts agree however that our obsession with thinness is having a damaging effect on our children.
“The reason that so many children who have problems in their lives are turning to eating disorders…is because they understand at a very early age that perfection is a size zero and these children are…wanting to be popular, they want praise and they see the way to get this as going on a diet and getting to be very thin,” says Dr Dawson.
Earlier this year, fifteen-year-old Chloe almost died and all because she thought she was fat. She started a diet but soon began skipping entire meals. She reassured her mum she was eating but then she collapsed. She had starved her body so much it was shutting down. Chloe is now in hospital, where she is being treated for anorexia.
“What started out as a diet for Chloe got out of hand and I later found out she’d been throwing her lunch away at school for months and basically having toast in the morning and a small bunch of grapes in the afternoon,” says her mum, Pam.
MPs have now launched an inquiry into what is behind the rise in anorexia and bulimia in recent years. They will examine the fashion, beauty, diet and media industries to find out the effect they are having on children.
We speak to the parents of a six-year-old girl who has been diagnosed with anorexia after she stopped eating or drinking. Neither they, nor many doctors who saw their daughter, initially felt she could have anorexia. Yet, after her weight dropped to two stone ten pounds she was admitted to a private hospital treating eating disorders, which diagnosed the illness.
They want parents to understand that even children as young as six can be affected by anorexia.
We meet patients at the Phoenix Centre in Cambridge who are battling to recover from their illness including seventeen-year-old Steph who is struggling with the fear of putting on weight.
“It’s just the sheer terror of having to put on more weight, when you feel like oh, I’m big enough as it is already, I don’t need to and I’m already fat enough. Why are they doing this to me?” she says.
And after eight years, Fiona Foster is reunited with Lisa, who she first met at Rhodes Farm, eating disorder hospital, in 2003. Back then Lisa was a fourteen-year-old anorexic who had been told she may only have weeks to live. Now eight years on Lisa has made a remarkable recovery. Her story gives hope to the thousands of sufferers of anorexia and their parents.
If you want to speak to someone about the issues in Dying to be Thin please contact:
B-eat – The National Eating Disorders Association
www.b-eat.co.uk
Helpline number: 0845 634 1414
Lines are open until 8.30pm tonight and from 10am tomorrow.
Anorexia Bulimia Care
www.anorexiabulimiacare.org.uk
A National Eating Disorders Charity with 22 years experience. It offers personal advice and support to anyone affected with an eating disorder.
Helpline number - 03000 11 12 13
Helpline is open from 9am – 5pm
Parent helpline Option 1
Sufferer helpline Option 2
Noted (No to Eating Disorders)
www.noteduk.com
To give support to Chloe, and her mum, Pam who are featured in Dying to Be Thin, please visit their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/222685734465971/