Strollerderby : eating disorders among children

10-Year-Old Finally Eats

Madeline Holler — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:59:00 GMT

You think you've got trouble with a kid who won't eat? Walk a mile in this mother's shoes. She's been waiting 10 years -- TEN! -- for her daughter to even pick at her dinner, much less heartily dig into anything she has been served.

Tia-Mae had been hooked up to a feeding tube since she was born prematurely and with a gap between her esophagus and her stomach.

While feeding tubes aren't that uncommon, a 10-year dependency on one certainly is. Her mother had tried to get her to eat real food since she was a baby, always offering her bits of this and that to see if she'd make the transition. Tia-Mae always refused.

Then, not long ago, she offered her daughter a yogurt and the most unexpected thing happened: Tia-Mae ate it. The whole thing.

Now, in addition to daily yogurts, she also eats ice-cream, custard, mousse and semolina. She still gets added nutrients via the feeding tube, but the mother hopes that, as Tia-Mae adds new foods to her diet, she'll eventually be weaned.

There was no medical reason for the girl to be eating from the tube for so long and comments about the article in the Daily Mail are harsh. But I wonder what I would do -- it can't be easy to watch your daughter waste away while crossing your fingers that tough love will prevail.

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Photo: DailyMail.co.uk

Eating Meals as a Way for Girls to Avoid Eating Disorders. Seriously.

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:03:00 GMT

It doesn't sound like a brainstorm, does it, that eating might combat eating disorders? But really, a new study showing that eating five family meals a week helps prevent girls from extreme weight control behaviors, is (for lack of a better term) huge. Why? Because it gets at some key issues in keeping our kids, especially our girls, fed, healthy and frankly, alive.

First, it is a good reminder that turning off Wheel of Fortune does more than help prevent our kids from using drugs, skipping school, hating us permanently and killing each other. Second, it shows that simple rituals, like setting the table and heating up a Stouffer's lasagna, models something more than the value of forcing your way begrudgingly through quality family time. I also wonder if some of this meal time magic also involves letting girls actually see their parents, and specifically mothers, eat. And of course, there is the power of just checking in with the children, spending time around a table full of (moderately) healthy food and (moderately) invested conversation.

And because research is so drinking-a-glass-of-wine-a-day-prevents-cancer/drinking-a-glass-of-wine-a-day-causes-all-kinds-of-cancer, the study also indicates that what may be good for the girls, may not be good for your boys. Family meal time that may serve your daughters well, it says, may be involved in increased unhealthy eating behaviors in your sons. Researchers say the gender differential could be playing on some boys' predisposition to eating disorders or simply that girls benefit from family meals than boys. You are damned if you have both boys and girls at your dining room table, I guess. If there are girls alone, though, the study says the likelihood eating disordered behavior in them may be reduced by as much as a third.

Of course, of course, eating disorders in our children are very serious and we don't want any of that obsession with thin seeping into the fresh and beautiful minds of our babies. As much as I might kid, I imagine that every parent reading would do anything -- including missing an episode of House Hunters and whipping up some sloppy joes -- to help counter self-starvation, bingeing, purging, laxative abuse, exercise compulsion and other awful obsessions embodied in our daughters.

Weekday meals seemed to work in boosting the chances of raising healthy eaters in this study, but do you think it would hold true in your family?

Skinny B*tch: Why Victoria Beckham Bothers Normal Babes

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:56:00 GMT

Stupid Posh Spice. This time I'm not just saying it because she was in the Spice Girls. I'm also not saying it just because she has a better haircut than I do and she gets to have sex with David Beckham. This time I'm pissed off because she bought a diet book. I know that normally shouldn't matter. I've purchased several diet books, but I am not a size zero. Nor do I have a 23 inch waist.

Here's the thing. The Daily Mail has an article that reports that the paparazzi took a picture of Victoria Beckham buying a book called Skinny Bitch. Beckham, who has previously admitted that she has an eating disorder doesn't look to me like she needs to be dieting.

After the photo was published on the web, the vegan diet book's sales went through the roof. Now, I have no problem with vegans (unless they expect me to try to cook something for them) but I do have a problem with a diet book that berates the reader, who is obviously already feeling bad about herself.

What was I saying? Oh yeah, Posh Spice? Dieting? She has the waist of a seven year old! She is the mother of three! How are her children ever going to learn how to eat healthy. How is my daughter ever going to learn how to feel good about herself at a healthy weight if the people the media obsesses over continue to obsess over their own weight?

Starving Daughters: Size Shouldn't Matter

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 15:42:00 GMT

Size shouldn't matter. Get your minds out of the gutter. I'm talking about what size clothes you wear. It shouldn't matter and it shouldn't bother us, but if you are like me - it does. And is does because there are books with titles like "Size 12 Isn't Fat". Now I completely agree with that statement, depending on your height and body frame. I look good in a 12, but the book title alone suggests that other people think a size 12 is fat and so I should feel bad about myself.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to look like Nicole Richie or Kate Moss. I think they look kind of gross, but I sure wouldn't mind looking like the model they kept referring to as "big" on Project Runway. Anyway, I don't think I am alone. Women my age (and older and younger) are obsessed with weight. In fact, I know I am not alone. Jane Gordon wrote a whole article about it. Courtney Martin wrote a whole book about it.

The book is called Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body. I haven't read it - yet, but that is only because I hadn't ever heard of it until yesterday. In the book Martin talks about how to teach our daughters to have better body images than we (their mothers) have. We need to feel better about ourselves so that we can teach our daughters by example.

I will lead by example so that my daughter never feels like she has to starve herself or throw up after every meal. For me that is even a better motivator to exercise and eat right than wanting to be thin anyway.

Kate Moss' New Clothes Line Only Goes Up to Size Six: Little Girls Everywhere Throw Up their Lunch

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:03:00 GMT

Dear Kate Moss,

You don't have to eat if you don't want to. I understand you use cocaine too. Fabulous. You are very thin and glamorous. I hear you are launching a new line of clothing that only goes up to a size six.

I guess what I am asking is if you could come over to my house and explain to my daughter why your internal organs won't last five more years. Can you help me teach her that even though she will probably be 5' 11" while she may fit into a size six in 10th grade, why it might not be very healthy for her to be that thin in her 30s.

Maybe you could find someone else to come talk to her. I too have battled the demons that are eating disorders. I blame assholes like you for teaching my son that women are supposed to look like they haven't eaten in months. Concentration Camp chic?

You are very thin. Hooray for you. Assuming that everyone else is a size 0,2,4, or 6 is asinine. You are a jerk and I am not only boycotting your clothing line but from here on out I will not support any company that hires you as a model. I cannot think of a worse role model.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Mother, Sarah

Isn't it Ironic?: Donatella Versace's Daughter Suffering from Anorexia

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:01:00 GMT

Fashion designer Donatella Versace, 52, revealed yesterday that her daughter Allegra, 20, has been "battling anorexia" for many years. She is now "desperately ill" and being treated by a team of specialists. She is said to be responding well. Anyone that follows fashion knows that these rumours have been circulating for years. In every photo I have seen of her she looks skeletal, and the recent photos surfacing now are shocking.

Anorexia has been the fashion industry's dirty little secret for years and several recent anorexia-related deaths of models have helped to bring the disease into the spotlight. Several countries now have BMI requirements for models participating in fashion week shows and there is the promise of medical care for those not meeting the requirements.

After writing the title, it's like I don't even need to write a post about this. What is there to say? It is sad, ironic, but not really that surprising that Allegra is suffering from anorexia. Not only has she grown up in the fashion industry where the emphasis is placed on extreme thinness, but she has a mother that, from the looks of it, can't stop hacking at her face and body. I wonder how many other "fashion kids" are suffering from eating-related diseases?

The Versace family is requesting privacy as Allegra fights for her life. Let's hope she's successful; she has a long road ahead of her if she is ever going to be "well."

Janice Dickinson Wants Your Kids to be Anorexic

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:30:00 GMT

Wow. I knew Janice Dickinson was a nut job, but I didn't know that she actively wished eating disorders on children.

Seriously. This is a direct quote from an article in the New York Post by Deborah Starr Seibel - "'I'm dying to find kids who are too thin. I've got 42 models in my agency and I'm trying to get them to lose weight. In fact, I wish they'd come down with some anorexia.' When you laugh at such politically incorrect statements, Dickinson yells back, 'I'm not kidding. I'm running into a bunch of fat-assed, lazy little bitches who don't know how to do the stairs or get their butts into the gym'. "

I have spent a lot of time on my personal blog complaining about what the media is doing to kids and bitching that nobody should be surprised that so many adolescent and teenaged girls (and now even much younger children) end up with anorexia or bulimia.

With all the talk on banning ultra-thin models, I had started believing that the fashion industry might be trying to promote healthier body images. But then I read about Janice Dickinson. My point being, nobody, for the love of God, sign your daughter (or son) up with Janice Dickinson's modeling agency.

Dear Johnny's Mom: Your Kid Is Fat. Signed, The School

Karen Murphy — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:00:00 GMT

My older son, who just turned 11, is 5'4". That's tall for his age, way tall. He also weighs somewhere between 80-100 lbs. He knows these statistics not just because kids know these things (which they generally don't), but because he was measured today by a nurse at his school. While I take a moment to ponder the necessity of this, especially since my son attends a private Waldorf (okay, stone me now) school, not a public school at all and not as such (I thought) under the jurisdiction of the state, let's examine the purported reason for such an invasion of a family's privacy.

According to this post at White Trash Mom, kids in many states including mine are being weighed and measured by their schools in order to determine their Body Mass Index (BMI; calculate yours here), a one-size-fits-all, slightly-better-than-the-old-weight-tables method of determining Who Is Fat and Who Is Not, which are being used by the school which then is sending a letter home to the parents to tell them if their child is "at-risk" for becoming overweight, or, worse, is already overweight.

Excuse me, but kids already know Who Is Fat. Especially the Kids Who Are Fat. Trust me, they know. So is sending a letter home to the parents for "at-risk" children going to make a difference, other than to contribute to an already unnecessary and unhealthy cultural obsession with appearance? Is this new practice, as White Trash Mom suggests, going to foster a sudden increase in eating disorders among children? Yes, there are way too many kids who are overeight or bordering on overweight out there as it is, but is a written admonishment really going to make a difference? How about, instead, some life-changing strategies of nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle that will serve the entire family for years to come?