Kingergarten Kids Hospitalized For Eating Disorders
August 4, 2011 3 Comments
Anorexics and bulimics are getting younger. Preteens? 8 year olds? 5 year olds? Sadly, yes, to all of the above.
Hospitals in the UK have pooled their information from the past couple of years to determine the amount of eating disorder patients they had seen as a whole. Almost 600 cases found the patient under 13 years old. Of this 600, 197 children were between the tender ages of 5 and 9. 2,100 children were being treated for eating disorders before their sweet sixteen. In the end, 98 children between 5 and 7, 99 children aged 8 or 9, Almost 400 patients were between ages 10 and 12, and 1,500 were between the ages of 13 and 15. Wow.
Possibly the most shocking aspect of this whole scenario is the fact that these numbers only reflect the number of patients with eating disorders in England. One can have an eating disorder and never even go to a doctor or hospital. This means that in England, 2,100 children were treated before the age of 16, but God only knows how many others were suffering in silence. These are only the cases that were found out.
The whole situation enrages and confuses me. For starters, when I was going through my worst bulimia, I was 15 through 19 years old. Before that, I barely even knew what a body was “supposed” to look like. Then at 15 I got contacts and the braces came off and I saw the world as the beauty-obsessed dungeon it really is. How are little girls so young becoming so obsessive over their shape that they even have the ability to starve or purge themselves?
Actually, the whole thing is no surprise. With the emphasis on beauty and perfection all around them, it shouldn’t be a shock to see girls as young as five being treated for such a mature disease. When we have little models like 10 year old Thylane Blondeau, little pieces of fashionable perfection, it throws a wrench in the growing up process and confidence of little girls everywhere.
No matter what the reasons behind these depressing new numbers, one thing is certain: our world is totally messed up. Little girls need to save the grown up drama for their mamas.
Contact the author here: crazycolleen@morningquickie.com
How do you try to shield your kids from the media monster?
Unforyunately, it’s not just the media monster. I remember being five or six years old, and telling my Mom and stepdad that I wanted to take ballet lessons. He told me I was too fat to be a ballerina.
True. When I was thirteen I had a friend with an enviable figure and a round face whose father constantly told her she needed to lose weight. He couldn’t see her skinny body underneath her round, and increasingly gaunt, face.